Taking the mass of the atmosphere to be 5.7E15 metric tons, what mass of carbon must
be burned in order to increase the average carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere
by 150ppm by volume (in metric tons)?
what equations do i use?
First, think. What volume of CO2 is 150ppm?
massCO2=150*10^-6 * 5.7E15 tons
change that to grams.
Then I would figure out the percent C in CO2.
Then multiply the mass of CO2 by the percent of C in CO2
Finally, you have it.
To determine the mass of carbon that needs to be burned in order to increase the average carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere by 150 parts per million (ppm), you can use the following equation:
Mass of carbon burned = (Mass of atmosphere) * (Change in CO2 concentration in ppm)
We are given the mass of the atmosphere as 5.7E15 metric tons and the desired increase in CO2 concentration as 150 ppm. Let's substitute these values into the equation:
Mass of carbon burned = (5.7E15 metric tons) * (150 ppm)
To calculate the final answer, we need to convert the ppm unit to a fraction. Since 1 ppm is equivalent to 1 part per million, we can write it as 1/1,000,000. Therefore, 150 ppm can be expressed as 150/1,000,000.
Now, let's calculate the mass of carbon burned:
Mass of carbon burned = (5.7E15 metric tons) * (150/1,000,000)
To simplify the calculation, we can divide the numerator (150) by the denominator (1,000,000) to get a fraction in the range of 0 to 1:
Mass of carbon burned = (5.7E15 metric tons) * (0.00015)
Now we can multiply the two numbers:
Mass of carbon burned = 8.55E12 metric tons
Therefore, in order to increase the average carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere by 150 ppm, it would require burning approximately 8.55 trillion metric tons of carbon.