Final answer:
A salinity reading of 41‰ in seawater translates to a 4.1% salt solution, which is higher than the average seawater salinity of 3.5%.
Step-by-step explanation:
If a sample of seawater has a salinity reading of 41‰ (parts per thousand), to convert this to a percentage of salt in water, you simply divide by 10.
Therefore, a salinity of 41‰ would correspond to a 4.1% salt solution. This is slightly higher than the average seawater salinity, which is about 3.5% as confirmed by scientific measurements indicating that most of the dissolved solids in seawater are made up of NaCl (sodium chloride), along with a mixture of other salts.
The 4.1% salinity means that in every 100 grams of seawater, there are 4.1 grams of dissolved salts, predominantly NaCl. Considering that seawater is an approximately 3.0% aqueous solution of NaCl by mass with about 0.5% of other salts, a 41‰ salinity value suggests that the given sample of seawater is more concentrated than average seawater.