Question #682b7

1 Answer
Stefan V.
Feb 15, 2018

0.640.64

Explanation:

The specific gravity of a substance is usually taken to mean the ratio that exists between the density of the substance and the density of water at 4^@"C"4∘C, the temperature at which the density of water is at its maximum value.

"SG"_ "substance" = rho_"substance"/rho_ ("water at 4"^@"C")SGsubstance=ρsubstanceρwater at 4∘C

Notice that the specific gravity is a dimensionless quantity because you're dividing two densities.

Now, the density of water at 4^@"C"4∘C is equal to "0.99997 g mL"^(-1)0.99997 g mL−1, but since the problem didn't provide this value, you can use "1 g mL"^(-1)1 g mL−1 as the density of water.

So, calculate the density of the substance by dividing the mass of the sample by the volume it occupies.

rho_"substance" = "1.6 g"/"2.5 mL" = "0.64 g mL"^(-1)ρsubstance=1.6 g2.5 mL=0.64 g mL−1

The *specific gravity of the substance will thus be

"SG" = (0.64 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g mL"^(-1)))))/(1 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g mL"^(-1))))) = color(darkgreen)(ul(color(black)(0.64)))

The answer is rounded to two sig figs.

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