Question #5d2fc

1 Answer
Jan 25, 2016

"42 g"

Explanation:

Think about what the density of a substance tells you.

As you know, the density of a substance is defined as the mass of one unit of volume of that substance.

color(blue)("density" = "mass"/"unit of volume"

In your case, the volume is given in milliliters, and the density in grams per milliliter, so one unit of volume will be equal to "1 mL".

A density of "0.79 g/mL" will thus tell you that you get "0.79 g" for every "1 mL" of ethanol.

So, you can say that

"1 mL " -> " 0.79 g"

"2 mL " -> " 0.79 g" + "0.79 g"

"3 mL " -> " 0.79 g" + "0.79 g" + "0.79 g"
vdots

and so on. In your case ,the sample of ethanol is said to have a volume of "53 mL". This means that its mass will be equal to

53 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("mL"))) * overbrace("0.79 g"/(1color(red)(cancel(color(black)("mL")))))^(color(purple)("given density")) = "41.87 g"

Rounded to two sig figs, the answer will be

m = color(green)("42 g")