A fishing boat accidentally spills 9.0 barrels of diesel oil into the ocean. Each barrel contains 42 gallons. If the oil film on the ocean is 2.5 x 102 nm thick, how many square meters will the oil slick cover? Assume that the oil slick forms a cube

Question

A fishing boat accidentally spills 9.0 barrels of diesel oil into the ocean. Each barrel contains 42 gallons. If the oil film on the ocean is 2.5 x 102 nm thick, how many square meters will the oil slick cover? Assume that the oil slick forms a cube

2 Answers

Answer Question

Answer 1

1 gallon= 0.003785 m3

volume of diesel oil= 9.0 x 42
= 378
area the oil covers= (378 x 0.003785) / 2.55 x 10^-7
= 5.61* 10^6 m2

Answer 2

1 US gallon is .003785411784 m^3 (exactly)

The oil will cover an area of
(9 bbl)(42 gal/bbl)*(.00379 m^3/gal)/((2.5*10^2)*10^-9 m)
≈ 5.7*10^6 m^2 to a uniform thickness of .25 microns (or 250 nm).

If the oil were a cube, its dimension would be about 1.127 meters on a side.