Question

The mass of the ocean is about 1.8 1021 kg. if the ocean contains 1.076% by mass sodium ions, na+, what is the mass in kilograms of na+ in the ocean?

Answer 1

In chemistry, if you want to express the amount of a substance out of the total amount, you express it in concentration. There are numerous units of measurement: molarity, molality, normality, mass percentages, volume percentage, or a mix of both. For this problem, the unit used for concentration is in mass percentages. The formula would be

Percentage Concentration = [(Actual Amount of Substance)/(Total amount of all substances)] * 100

Since we are given with the total mass of all the substances in the ocean and the percentage concentration, the only missing information is the actual amount of Na+ in the ocean. Substituting the values:

1.076 = (Amount of Na+ /1.8×10²¹ kg)*100
Amount of Na+ = 1.9368×10¹⁹ kg