Ok... i have no idea how to do this problem.... if anybody can help, that would be very much appreciated

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67.) Oil spreads on water to form a film about 100 nm thick. How many square kilometers of ocean will be covered by the slick formed when one barrel of oil is spilled (1 barrel = 31.5 U.S. gallons)

***Answer has two sigifgs

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Thanks!!!!!!

The volume of the spill (area*thickness) has to equal the volume spilled.

Watch units.

ok thanks!!

I got 1.2 km^2 for the answer.

To solve this problem, we need to find the surface area covered by the oil slick formed when one barrel of oil is spilled.

First, let's convert the volume of one barrel of oil from gallons to liters. Since 1 U.S. gallon is approximately 3.785 liters, one barrel (31.5 U.S. gallons) would be equal to:

31.5 gallons × 3.785 liters/gallon = 118.6075 liters

Next, we need to convert liters into cubic meters. Since 1 liter is equal to 0.001 cubic meters, one barrel of oil would be:

118.6075 liters × 0.001 cubic meters/liter = 0.1186075 cubic meters

Now, we want to find the surface area covered by the oil slick. Let's assume that the film formed by the oil is approximately a uniform thickness of 100 nm (nanometers).

To convert the thickness of the oil slick film from nanometers to meters, we need to multiply by a conversion factor. Since there are 1,000,000,000 nm in a meter, the thickness in meters would be:

100 nm × (1 meter/1,000,000,000 nm) = 0.0000001 meters

Now, we can calculate the surface area covered by the oil slick using the formula:

Surface area = Volume / Thickness

Surface area = 0.1186075 cubic meters / 0.0000001 meters
Surface area = 1,186,075,000 square meters

Finally, to convert the surface area from square meters to square kilometers, we'll divide by 1,000,000:

Surface area = 1,186,075,000 square meters / 1,000,000 square meters/square kilometer
Surface area = 1,186.075 square kilometers

Therefore, when one barrel of oil is spilled, the slick formed will cover approximately 1,186.075 square kilometers of the ocean.