Skip to main content

Kristen has 7.5 mL of water and her lab partner Rebecca has 2.3 L. How many mL do they have?

Q:


Kristen has 7.5 mL of water. Her lab partner Rebecca has 2.3 L of water. How many mL of water do they have between the two of them?


A: 


The key to this question is the knowledge that one liter (L) of water (or anything, for that matter) is equivalent to 1,000 milliliters (mL). An easy way to remember this is that the prefix "milli-" always means one-thousandth. Since the liter is the standard unit, a milliliter is one-thousandth of a liter. In other words, a liter is made up of one thousand milliliters.


In order to add the two together, we need them to be in the same units. Since the question is asking us for milliliters, let's convert Rebecca's water into milliliters, as well (we already know Kristen has 7.5 mL). Converting will give us a common unit that we can add together. 


Since we know there are 1,000 milliliters (mL) in a liter (L), we can use multiplication to get the number of milliliters that Rebecca has. In other words, Rebecca has:


`2.3 L * (1,000 mL)/L = 2,300 mL` 


You can read the above as "2.3 liters times 1,000 milliliters per liter." Since we are multiplying, the liters unit ("L") from "1,000 mL/L" is cancelled out and we are left with the number of milliliters. Now we just add the two values together to get the total number of milliliters that Kristen and Rebecca have:


`2,300 mL + 7.5 mL = 2,307.5 mL`


So in total, they have 2,307.5 mL of water, which is the final answer.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more