Question

A fishing boat accidentally spills 3.0 barrels of diesel oil into the ocean. each barrel contains 42 gallons. if the oil film on the ocean is 2.5 × 102 nm thick, how many square meters will the oil slick cover?

Answer 1

Number of barrels are 3.0. Each barrel contains 42 gallons of oil. Thus, total volume of oil will be 42×3=126 gallons.

Converting gallons into m^{3}

1 gallon=0.00378 m^{3}

Thus, 126 gallons=0.4769 m^{3}

Thickness of oil film is 2.5\times 10^{2} nm, converting it into meters as follows:

1 nm=10^{-9} m

Thus,

2.5\times 10^{2} nm=1.5\times 10^{-7}m

Now, volume V of oil is related to area A and thickness T as follows:

V=A×T

rearranging,

A=\frac{V}{T}=\frac{0.4769 m^{3}}{2\times 10^{-7}m}=2.38\times 10^{6}m^{2}

Thus, square meters of oil will be 2.38\times 10^{6}m^{2}