Question

Polyethylene is a polymer used in the manufacture of many plastic containers. Suppose a chemist has determined that a single polymer strand 2.992 10 of polyethylene measuring 0.07 millimeters in length is composed of 100,000 monomers. Using the principal of indirect measurement, how long would you estimate each monomer to be?

Answer 1

To find the length of a monomer in the polyethylene strand, divide the total length of 0.07 millimeters by the number of monomers, yielding a length of 7 x 10^-7 millimeters per monomer.

Step-by-step explanation:

To estimate the length of each monomer in the polyethylene polymer using the principle of indirect measurement, one would divide the total length of the polymer strand by the number of monomers it contains.

The total length of the polymer strand is given as 0.07 millimeters, and the number of monomers in this polymer strand is 100,000. So, each monomer's length is calculated by:

Monomer length = Total polymer length / Number of monomers

Monomer length = 0.07 mm / 100,000

Monomer length = 7 x 10^-7 millimeters (0.0000007 millimeters)