Question

You are working as an expert witness for an attorney who is suing a shipping company. The company operates ships that carry crude oil across the oceans. One ship suffered an oil spill, in which the spilled oil spreads out into a slick, forming a thin film that floats on the ocean surface. The legal issue is whether or not the ship spilled more or less than a volume of 10.0 m3 of oil into the ocean. You are reading documents that describe the oil slick on the ocean surface. In one document, you find out that reflection tests were performed on the oil slick. These tests showed that the ocean surface showed a maximum of interference for 490 nm light over a circular area of radius 4.25 km surrounding the location at which the spill occurred. At distances farther from the location, the ocean surface showed no constructive interference, indicating that no oil was present. The type of oil involved has an index of refraction of n = 1.15. Determine for the attorney the minimum amount of oil (in m3) that was spilled.

Answer 1

56.7 m³

Step-by-step explanation:

The radius of the circular area covered by the spill is 4.25 km

You can find the area covered by the spill by applying the formula for area of a circular surface

A=π×r² where π=3.14 and r=4.25km

A= 3.14×4.25² = 56.72 km²

Remember the total area is on average at 1 micron (1μm) thick.This is to say

1μm=1m³

So the minimum volume of oil covering the ocean surface in meters will be;

Change km² to m²

56.72 km²= 56.72×1000000=5.67×10⁷ m²

Finding the volume;

Volume = Area * thickness

Volume= 5.67×10⁷ m² * 1× 10⁻⁶ = 56.7 m³

Minimum amount of oil that was spilled is 56.7 m³