How much water is needed to dilute a saline solution?

Question:

If a scientist has 2 liters of a 30% saline solution, how many liters of pure water would he need to dilute the saline concentration to 8.5%? Round to the nearest hundredth.

A) 0.84 liters B) 1.16 liters C) 1.32 liters D) 1.52 liters

Answer:

Final answer:

To dilute a 2-liter 30% saline solution to an 8.5% concentration, the equation is used:

0.30 × 2 L = 0.085 × (2 L + x L)

This results in approximately 5.06 liters of pure water needed, which does not match the provided options.

Explanation:

To determine how many liters of pure water need to be added to dilute a 30% saline solution to an 8.5% concentration, we can set up an equation based on the concept of dilution.

The amount of salt in the original solution remains the same; only the total volume of liquid changes. The equation becomes:

0.60 = 0.085 × (2 + x)

Solving for x, we get approximately 5.06 liters of pure water needed to dilute the solution, which does not match with any of the answer choices provided.