Question

A student wants to identify the main component in a liquid cleaner. He finds that 35.8 mL of the cleaner weighs 28.1 g. Which of the following possibilities is the main component of the cleaner? Chloroform (D= 1.483 g/mL), diethyl ether (D = 0.714g/mL), isopropyl alcohol (0.785 g/mL) or toluene (D = 0.867 g/mL)

Answer 1

Alcohol

Explanation:

Hi, interesting question.

You need to figure out the density of the cleaner, and a hint to what density is (if you don't remember) is right there in the question:

Density is mass per volume.

Which can be calculated as grams per milliliter. (See that in the choices they gave us?)

They tell us that 35.8 mL of this cleaner weighs 28.1 grams. Now we just need to figure out which way to divide.

Since we need our answer to come out in units of g/mL, we'd better divide grams by milliliters:

Density of cleaner = 28.1 g / 35.8 mL = 0.785 g/mL

Now just compare that to the given liquids, and it looks like that's closest to (okay, it's exactly that of) alcohol, at 0.785 g/mL.