A scientist has 0.46 mL of a solution. How would she convert this volume to microliters?
She is a scientist and can't do that in her head? Goodness.
1mL=1000microL
Relevant conversion facts:
1 mL = 0.001 L --> 1.00x10^-3 L
1 microliter = 0.000001 L --> 1.00x10^-6 L
We multiply the measurement we want to change times the appropriate labeled conversion factors. After you do units cancellations and numerical calculations, you end up with a correctly labeled answer:
(0.46mL)(0.001L/1mL)(0.000001L/1microliter)=___??
PLEASE NOTE: Every General Chemistry textbook gives examples of this formal but very useful method. It is the BEST method for converting both. simple and derived units with a built in check: If you end up with the correct units, your setup is probably correct.
To convert milliliters (mL) to microliters (µL), you need to multiply the volume in mL by 1000.
Here's how you can do it:
1 mL = 1000 µL
Given that the scientist has 0.46 mL of a solution, multiply it by 1000 to convert it to microliters:
0.46 mL * 1000 µL/mL = 460 µL
Therefore, the scientist has 460 microliters of the solution.