Question

Suppose that you take a sample of 500 g of ocean water and let the water evaporate. The mass of the remaining salts is 17 g. What was the salinity of the ocean water

Answer 1

Answer: The salinity of ocean water is 34 ppt.

Explanation:

Salinity is defined as the number of grams of salts present per kilogram of seawater. It is expressed in parts per thousand.

The formula used to calculate the salinity of ocean water or sea water is:

$\text{ Parts per thousand}=\frac{\text{Mass of salts}}{\text{Mass of sea water}}\times 1000$

We are given:

Mass of salts = 17 g

Mass of sea water = 500 g

Putting values in above equation, we get:

$\text{ Parts per thousand}=\frac{17g}{500g}\times 1000\\\\\text{ Parts per thousand}=34$

Hence, the salinity of ocean water is 34 ppt.