Final answer:
Mervin can calculate the water volume in a tank by using the physical quantity of volume, measured in units like liters or gallons, or calculated from the tank's dimensions for regular geometric shapes, or by displacement for irregular shapes.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine the volume of water that a tank can hold, Mervin needs to use the physical quantity of volume. Volume is a measure of the amount of space occupied by an object, substance, or liquid. If Mervin is dealing with small quantities of water, such as in a chemical solution, a graduated cylinder would be an appropriate tool to measure the volume. However, if the tank is large, measurements may be in larger units like gallons, and calculations could be based on the tank's dimensions using formulas for geometric shapes, such as V = length × width × height for a rectangular tank.
In cases where the tank has irregular geometry, methods such as water displacement can be used to measure volume. For regular solid shapes where the three dimensions are known, calculating the volume can be straightforward. Similarly, the volume of a fluid V in a container can be calculated with V = Ah, where A represents the cross-sectional area and h the depth of the fluid.