Question

At its highest salinity, the water in Utah’s Great Salt Lake contains about 14.5g of salt in 50g of lake after. What was the salinity of the lake?

Answer 1

the salinity of lake is expressed as mass of salt dissolved in grams per kg of water

Given:

Mass of salt = 14.5g

mass of water =50g = 50 / 1000kg = 0.05kg

Thus salinity will be

salinity = mass of solute / mass of water in kg

salinity = 14.5g / 0.05 kg = 290g / kg

This can also be expressed as parts per thousand or ppt

so salinity is 290 ppt