Your friend eats 50.0g tuna steak. You find out that the tuna is 0.001% (by mass) mercury. The lethal dose of mercury is 5.5x10^-3 mg of mercury. Should you take your friend to the hospital?
50.0 x 1E-5 = ? grams. Multiply by 1000 to convert to mg. Compare with 5.5E-3.
Aren't we supposed to multiply 50.0g by 0.001? Where did 1E^-5 come from?
To determine if your friend should be taken to the hospital, we need to calculate the amount of mercury ingested from the tuna steak and compare it to the lethal dose of mercury.
First, we need to convert the percentage of mercury into a decimal representation. The tuna steak is said to be 0.001% mercury, which is equivalent to 0.001/100 = 0.00001 (decimal).
Next, we need to calculate the mass of mercury ingested. We can do this by multiplying the mass of the tuna steak (50.0g) by the decimal representation of the mercury content (0.00001).
Mass of mercury = 50.0g * 0.00001 = 0.0005g
However, the lethal dose of mercury is given in milligrams (mg). Since 1g = 1000mg, we need to convert the mass to milligrams.
Mass of mercury = 0.0005g * 1000mg/g = 0.5mg
Comparing this to the lethal dose of mercury (5.5x10^-3 mg), we can see that the amount of mercury ingested is less than the lethal dose.
Therefore, based on the given information, it is not necessary to take your friend to the hospital.