Lead can be dangerous when present at just 1ppb (part per billion) in drinking water. An older apartment building finds that 0.1 g of lead has dissolved into the old 1000 L water heater. Is the water safe to drink? Show your work!
3 years ago
Answered By Aiea M
1ppb reflects on a 0.0000001% presence in drinking water. In this question, you are looking at 0.1g in 1000L, so you need to convert the units for water from volume to mass, by using its density which in waters case is 1g/mL, therefore converting 1000L of water to mL gives you 1000000mL, and hence 1000000g. 0.1g in 1000000g is 1g of lead in every 10,000,000g of water, translating to a 0.00001% of 100ppb.
So this water is NOT safe to drink! Unless you want lead poisoning :/
3 years ago
Answered By Aiea M
1ppb reflects on a 0.0000001% presence in drinking water. In this question, you are looking at 0.1g in 1000L, so you need to convert the units for water from volume to mass, by using its density which in waters case is 1g/mL, therefore converting 1000L of water to mL gives you 1000000mL, and hence 1000000g. 0.1g in 1000000g is 1g of lead in every 10,000,000g of water, translating to a 0.00001% of 100ppb.
So this water is NOT safe to drink! Unless you want lead poisoning :/