Question

I have a list of ions in a seawater sample with all the wights that each ion has. they ask me to compute the total mass ratio and to calculate the net balance of positive and negative chrages. How can I solve these 2 problems? I have some ideas but I would like to have some advices! Thank you

Answer 1

if you have excell table then its 2 minutes of work just put in equation for mass ratio
w(x) = m(x) / m(sum)
and if you have charges in separate column just sum them up

Answer 2

I forgot to mention that the weights are expressed in g/Kg
So do I have to divide each salt’s weight by the total weight of salts, or by 1 Kg (that I assume is the weight of the water sample take into account)?

Answer 3

so weights are expressed in g of that particular ion that is contained in 1 kg of seawater, do you have a given amount of seawater or is it general

Answer 4

no it's general
I have all in g/Kg
Cl– 19.353
Na+ 10.781
SO42– 2.712
Mg2+ 1.284
Ca2+ 0.412
K+ 0.399
HCO3– 0.126
Br– 0.067
H2BO3– 0.026
Sr2+ 0.008
F– 0.001

Answer 5

the total mass of the salts is 35.169 (which is more or less the average salinity of atlantic water). They ask me to compute the total mass ratio, but I don't understand if I have to divide each weight with 35.169g or with 1 Kg (that is the entire sample) amd then sum them all together

Answer 6

if its per kg then you calculate per kg for that ion species but if you are asked for all ions ratio then you calculate 35 per kg

Answer 7

so the answer will be just 3.5169

Answer 8

sorry 0.035169

Answer 9

if you calculated it to be that value then yes, i didnt do any calculations so i cant be sure...