Question

A flask has a mass of 78.23 g when empty and 593.63 g when filled with water. When the same flask is filled with concentrated sulfuric acid, H₂SO₄, its mass is 1026.57 g. What is the density of concentrated sulfuric acid? (Assume water has a density of 1.00 g/cm3 at the temperature of the measurement.)

1) 1.992 g/cm3
2) 1.840 g/cm3
3) 1.729 g/cm3
4) 1.598 g/cm3
5) 0.543 g/cm3

Answer 1

The density of concentrated sulfuric acid is calculated by finding the mass of the acid and dividing it by the volume of the flask, yielding a density of 2) 1.840 g/cm3.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the density of concentrated sulfuric acid, we first determine the mass of the sulfuric acid alone by subtracting the mass of the empty flask from the mass of the flask filled with sulfuric acid:

Mass of sulfuric acid = Mass of flask with sulfuric acid - Mass of empty flask = 1026.57 g - 78.23 g = 948.34 g

Next, we use the mass of the water-filled flask to find the volume of the flask since water has a known density of 1.00 g/cm3 at the measurement temperature:

Volume of the flask = Mass of flask with water - Mass of empty flask = 593.63 g - 78.23 g = 515.40 g

Since the density of water is 1.00 g/cm3, the volume of the water (and therefore the volume capacity of the flask) is 515.40 cm3.

Finally, we calculate the density of the sulfuric acid using its mass and the volume of the flask:

Density of sulfuric acid = Mass of sulfuric acid / Volume of flask = 948.34 g / 515.40 cm3 = 1.840 g/cm3

Therefore, the correct answer is 1.840 g/cm3, which corresponds to option 2.