Question

The atmosphere contains about 5.2 x1015 t of air. What mass in metric tons of carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere if the concentration of CO2 is 395 ppm?

Answer 1

• 2.05 × 10¹¹ tons of CO₂

Step-by-step explanation:

ppm is a unit of concentration that expresses the mass of a component (solute) in 1,000,000 units of mass of a mixture (solution).

Thus, 395 ppm means 395 tons of CO₂ in 1,000,000 tons of air.

To determine the amount of CO₂ in 5.2 × 10¹⁵ tons of air, multiply the amount of air by the ppm concentration of CO₂ divided by 1,000,000 (10⁶):

`5.2* 10^(15)\text{tons of air}*\frac{395\text{tons of }CO_2}{10^6\text{tons of air}}`

`5.2* 10^(15)\text{tons of air}*\frac{395\text{tons of }CO_2}{10^6\text{tons of air}}=2.05* 10^(11)\text{tons of }CO_2`