CHE2162 Tutorial Problems Semester Two, 2014

Week 2

1. (F&R, 2.5) A frustrated professor once claimed that if all the reports she graded in her career
were stacked on top of one another, they would reach from the Earth to the moon. The
distance between the Earth and the moon is 238857 miles. Assume that a report contains
10 pages of A-4 size paper, and each paper is of thickness 0.01 mm. How many reports the
professor would have to grade for her claim to be valid?

2. (F&R, 2.6) You are trying to decide which of the two automobiles to buy. The first one is
American-made, costs $14500, and has a rated gasoline mileage of 28 miles/gal. The second
car is European-made, costs $21700, and has a rated mileage of 19km/L. If the cost of
gasoline is $1.25/gal and if the cars actually deliver their rated mileage, how many miles you
would have to drive for the lower fuel consumption of the second car to compensate for the
higher cost of this car? Assume that the service and maintenance costs of the two cars are
the same.

3. (F&R, 2.11) According to Archimedes’ principle, the mass of a floating object equals the
mass of the fluid displaced by the object. Use this principle to solve the following problems –

a. A wooden cylinder 30.0 cm high floats vertically in tub of water ( ).

The top of the cylinder is 14.1 cm above the surface of water. What is the density of
the wood?
b. The same cylinder floats vertically in a liquid of unknown density. The top of the
cylinder is 20.7 cm above the surface of the liquid. What is the liquid density?

4. (F&R, 2.23) The Reynolds number is a dimensionless group defined fora fluid flowing in a
pipe as , where D is the pipe diameter, u is the velocity, μ is the viscosity, and ρ is
the density. The transition from laminar to turbulent flow is at Re=2100. Liquid methyethyl
ketone (MEK) flows at room temperature in a pipe of inner diameter of 2.067 inches at an
average velocity of 0.48 ft/s. At room temperature, the density of MEK is 0.805 g/cm3, and
the viscosity is 0.43 centipoise. Is the flow laminar or turbulent?

5. (F&R, 2.28) Concentration C (mol/L) of reactant varies with time (min) according to the
equation:

a. What are the units of 3.00 and 2.00

b. Suppose the concentration is measured at t = 0 and t = 1 min. Use two-point linear
interpolation or extrapolation to estimate C(t = 0.6 min) and t(C = 0.10 mol/L) from
the measured values, and compare these results with the true values of these
quantities.
c. Sketch a curve of C versus t, and show graphically the points you determine in part
(b).
CHE2162 Tutorial Problems Semester Two, 2014

6. (F&R, 3.3) The specific gravity of gasoline is approximately 0.70.

(a) Determine the mass (kg) of 50.0 litres of gasoline.
(b) The mass flow rate of gasoline exiting a refinery tank is 1150 kg/min. Estimate the
volumetric flow rate in litres/s.
(c) Estimate the average mass flow rate (lbm/min) delivered by a gasoline pump in which 10
gallons of gasoline are pumped in 2 minutes.
(d) Gasoline and kerosene (S.G.=0.82) are blended to obtain a mixture with a specific gravity
of 0.78. Calculate the volumetric ratio (volume of gasoline/volume of kerosene) of the
two compounds in the mixture, assuming

7. (F&R,3.51) A thermostat control with dial markings from 0 to 100 is used to regulate the
temperature of an oil bath. A calibration plot on logarithmic coordinates of the
temperature, T (°F), versus the dial setting, R, is a straight line that passes through the
points (R1 = 20.0, T1 = 110.0°F) and (R2 = 40.0, T2 = 250.0°F).
i. Derive an equation for T in terms of R.
ii. Estimate the thermostat setting needed to obtain a temperature of 320°F
iii. Suppose you set the thermostat to the value of R calculated in part (b), and the reading
of the thermocouple mounted in the bath equilibrates at 295°F instead of 320°F.
Suggest several possible explanations.