STUDY PROBLEMS

1. One gallon of gasoline in an automobile’s engine produces on the average 9.5 kg of

carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, that is, it promotes the warming of Earth’s
atmosphere. Calculate the annual production of carbon dioxide in kilograms if there
are 250 million cars in the United States and each car covers a distance of 5000 mi at
a consumption rate of 20 miles per gallon.

2. Chlorine is used to disinfect swimming pools. The accepted concentration for this
purpose is 1 ppm chlorine, or 1 g of chlorine per million grams of water. Calculate the
volume of a chlorine solution (in milliliters) a homeowner should add to her swimming
pool if the solution contains 6.0 percent chlorine by mass and there are 2.0 X 104
gallons of water in the pool. (1 gallon = 3.79 L; density of liquids = 1.0 g/mL)

3. A pycnometer is a device for measuring the density of liquids. It is a glass flask with a
close-fitting ground glass stopper having a capillary hole through it. (a) The volume of
the pycnometer is determined by using distilled water at 20°C with a known density of
0.99820 g/mL. First, the water is filled to the rim. With the stopper in place, the fine
hole allows the excess liquid to escape. The pycnometer is then carefully dried with
filter paper. Given that the masses of the empty pycnometer and the same one filled
with water are 32.0764 g and 43.1195 g, respectively, calculate the volume of the
pycnometer. (b) If the mass of the pycnometer filled with ethanol at 20°C is 40.8051
g, calculate the density of ethanol. (c) Pycnometers can also be used to measure the
density of solids. First, small zinc granules weighing 22.8476 g are placed in the
pycnometer, which is then filled with water. If the combined mass of the pycnometer
plus the zinc granules and water is 62.7728 g, what is the density of zinc?
4. An aluminum cylinder is 10.0 cm in length and has a radius of 0.25 cm. If the mass of a
single Al atom is 4.48 X 10-23 g. Calculate the number of Al atoms present in the
cylinder. The density of aluminum is 2.70 g/cm3.

5. A human brain weighs about 1 kg and contains about 1011 cells. Assuming that each
cell is completely filled with water (density = 1 g/mL), calculate the length of one side
of such a cell if it were a cube. If the cells are spread out in a thin layer that is a single
cell thick, what is the surface area in square meters?.

6. A graduated cylinder is filled to the 40.00-mL mark with a mineral oil. The masses of
the cylinder before and after the addition of the mineral oil are 124.966 g and 159.446
g, respectively. In a separate experiment, a metal ball bearing of mass 18.713 g is
placed in the cylinder and the cylinder is again filled to the 40.00-mL mark with the
mineral oil. The combined mass of the ball bearing and mineral oil is 50.952 g. Calculate
the density and radius of the ball bearing. [The volume of a sphere of radius r is
(4/3)πr3.]

7. In the United States, the volume of irrigation water is usually expressed in acre-feet.
One acre-foot is a volume of water sufficient to cover 1 acre of land to a depth of 1 ft
(1640 acres = 1 mi2; 1 mi = 5280 ft). The principal lake in the California Water Project
is Lake Oroville, whose water storage capacity is listed as 3.54 X 106 acre-feet. Express
the volume of Lake Oroville in (a) cubic feet; (b) cubic meters; (c) U.S. gallons.

8. A solution used to chlorinate a home swimming pool contains 7% chlorine by mass. An

ideal chlorine level for the pool is one part per million (1 ppm). (Think of 1 ppm as
being 1 g chlorine per million grams of water.) If you assume densities of 1.10 g/mL for
the chlorine solution and 1.00 g/mL for the swimming pool water, what volume of the
chlorine solution, in liters, is required to produce a chlorine level of 1 ppm in an 18,000-
gallon swimming pool?

9. Blood alcohol content (BAC) is sometimes reported in weight-volume percent and,

when it is, a BAC of 0.10% corresponds to 0.10 g of ethyl alcohol per 100 mL of blood.
In many jurisdictions, a person is considered legally intoxicated if his or her BAC is
0.10%. Suppose that a 68 kg person has a total blood volume of 5.4 L and breaks down
ethyl alcohol at a rate of 10.0 grams per hour.* How many 145 mL glasses of wine,
consumed over three hours, will produce a BAC of 0.10% in this 68 kg person? Assume
the wine has a density of 1.01 g/mL and is 11.5% ethyl alcohol by mass. (*The rate at
which ethyl alcohol is broken down varies dramatically from person to person. The
value given here for the rate is a realistic, but not necessarily accurate, value.).
10. The filament in an incandescent light bulb is made from tungsten metal (d = 19.3
g/cm3) that has been drawn into a very thin wire. The diameter of the wire is difficult
to measure directly, so it is sometimes estimated by measuring the mass of a fixed
length of wire. If a 0.200 m length of tungsten wire weighs 42.9 mg, then what is the
diameter of the wire? Express your answer in millimeters.

11. An empty 3.00 L bottle weighs 1.70 kg. Filled with a certain wine, it weighs 4.72 kg.
The wine contains 11.5% ethyl alcohol by mass. How many grams of ethyl alcohol are
there in 250.0 mL of this wine?

12. Magnesium occurs in seawater to the extent of 1.4 g magnesium per kilogram of
seawater. What volume of seawater, in cubic meters, would have to be processed to
produce 1.50 x 105 tons of magnesium? Assume a density of 1.025 g/mL for seawater.

13. Gold is alloyed (mixed) with other metals to increase its hardness in making jewelry.
(a) Consider a piece of gold jewelry that weighs 9.85 g and has a volume of 0.675 cm3.
The jewelry contains only gold and silver, which have densities of 19.3 and 10.5 g/cm3,
respectively. If the total volume of the jewelry is the sum of the volumes of the gold
and silver that it contains, calculate the percentage of gold (by mass) in the jewelry.
(b) The relative amount of gold in an alloy is commonly expressed in units of carats.
Pure gold is 24 carat, and the percentage of gold in an alloy is given as a percentage of
this value. For example, an alloy that is 50% gold is 12 carat. State the purity of the
gold jewelry in carats.

14. In the United States, water used for irrigation is measured in acre-feet. An acre-foot of
water covers an acre to a depth of exactly 1 ft. An acre is 4840 yd 2. An acre-foot is
enough water to supply two typical households for 1.00 yr. (a) If desalinated water
costs $1950 per acre-foot, how much does desalinated water cost per liter? (b) How
much would it cost one household per day if it were the only source of water?.

15. A 30.0-cm-long cylindrical plastic tube, sealed at one end, is filled with acetic acid. The
mass of acetic acid needed to fill the tube is found to be 89.24 g. The density of acetic
acid is 1.05 g/mL. Calculate the inner diameter of the tube in centimeters.
16. Water has a density of 0.997 g/cm3 at 25°C; ice has a density of 0.917 g/cm3 at -10°C.
(a) If a soft-drink bottle whose volume is 1.50 L is completely filled with water and then
frozen to -10°C, what volume does the ice occupy? (b) Can the ice be contained within
the bottle?

17. Saline solution used in hospital contains 0.9% sodium chloride by mass. Calculate the
number of grams of sodium chloride in 0.5 gal of saline solution if the solution has a
density of 1.01 g/mL.

18. Complete the following table. What minimum amount of information is required to
completely characterize an atom or ion? [Hint: Not all rows can be completed.]

19. The three naturally occurring isotopes of potassium are 39K, 38.963707 u; 40K,
39.963999 u; and 41K. The percent isotopic abundances of 39K and 41K are 93.2581%
and 6.7302%, respectively. Determine the isotopic mass of 41K.

20. Germanium has three major naturally occurring isotopes: 70Ge (69.92425 u, 20.85%),
72Ge (71.92208 u, 27.54%), 74Ge (73.92118 u, 36.29%). There are also two minor

isotopes: 73Ge (72.92346 u) and 76Ge (75.92140 u). Calculate the percent isotopic
abundances of the two minor isotopes. Comment on the precision of these
calculations.

21. Atoms are spherical and so when silver atoms pack together to form silver metal, they
cannot fill all the available space. In a sample of silver metal, approximately 26.0% of
the sample is empty space. Given that the density of silver metal is 10.5 g/cm3, what
is the radius of a silver atom? Express your answer in picometers.
22. How many atoms are present in a 1.50 m length of 20-gauge copper wire? A 20-gauge
wire has a diameter of 0.03196 in., and the density of copper is 8.92 g/cm3.

23. Determine: (a) the number of moles of Zn in a 415.0 g sample of zinc metal, (b) the
number of Cr atoms in 147.4 kg chromium, (c) the mass of a one-trillion-atom (1.0 x
1012) sample of metallic gold (d) the average mass of a fluorine atom.

24. During a severe episode of air pollution, the concentration of lead in the air was
observed to be 3.11 ug Pb/m3. How many Pb atoms would be present in a 0.500 L
sample of this air (the volume of air displaced in the lungs between inhaling and
exhaling)?

25. One isotope of a metallic element has mass number 65 and 35 neutrons in the nucleus.
The cation derived from the isotope has 28 electrons. Write the symbol for this cation.

26. Fill in the blanks in the following table:

27. Complete the table by filling in the formula for the ionic compound formed by each
pair of cations and anions, as shown for the first pair.

28. Identify each of the following elements: (a) a halogen whose anion contains 36
electrons, (b) a radioactive noble gas with 86 protons, (c) a Group 6A element whose
anion contains 36 electrons, (d) an alkali metal cation that contains 36 electrons, (e) a
Group 4A cation that contains 80 electrons.

29. Fill the blanks in the following table:

30. A cube made of platinum (Pt) has an edge length of 1.0 cm. (a) Calculate the number
of Pt atoms in the cube. (b) Atoms are spherical in shape. Therefore, the Pt atoms in
the cube cannot fill all of the available space. If only 74 percent of the space inside the
cube is taken up by Pt atoms, calculate the radius in picometers of a Pt atom. The
density of Pt is 21.45 g/cm3 and the mass of a single Pt atom is 3.240 x 10-22 g. [The
volume of a sphere of radius r is (4/3)πr3.]
31. A cube of gold that is 1.00 cm on a side has a mass of 19.3 g. A single gold atom has a
mass of 197.0 u. (a) How many gold atoms are in the cube? (b) From the information
given, estimate the diameter in Å of a single gold atom. (c) What assumptions did you
take in arriving at your answer for part (b)?

32. Fill in the blanks in the following table:

33. Copper (Cu) consists of two naturally occurring isotopes with masses of 62.9296 and
64.9278 u. (a) How many protons and neutrons are in the nucleus of each isotope?
Write the complete atomic symbol for each, showing the atomic number and mass
number. (b) The average atomic mass of Cu is 63.55 u. Calculate the abundance of
each isotope.

34. The U.S. Mint produces a dollar coin called the American Silver Eagle that is made of
nearly pure silver. This coin has a diameter of 41 mm and a thickness of 2.5 mm. The
density and approximate market price of silver are 10.5 g/cm3 and $0.51 per gram,
respectively. Calculate the value of the silver in the coin, assuming its thickness is
uniform.

35. Predict whether each of the following compounds is molecular or ionic: (a) HClO4 (b)
CH3OCH3 (c) Mg(NO3)2 (d) H2S (e) TiCl4 (f) K2O2 (g) PCl5 (h) P(OH)3.

36. Predict whether each of the following compounds is molecular or ionic: (a) BI3 (b)
N(CH3)3 (c) Zr(NO3)2 (d) N2H4 (e) OsCO3 (f) H2SO4 (g) HgS (h) IOH.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Note: All study problems mentioned above are taken from next Bibliography:

1. Brown TL, editor. Chemistry: the central science. 12th ed. Boston: Prentice Hall;
2012. 1 p.

2. Petrucci RH. General chemistry: principles and modern applications. Toronto, Ont.:
Pearson Canada; 2011.

3. Chang R, Goldsby KA, Álvarez Manzo R, Ponce López S. Química [Internet]. México,
D.F.: McGraw-Hill Interamericana; 2013

4. Skoog DA. Fundamentos de química analítica: novena edición. México, D.F.:

Cengage Learning; 2015