A tank contains 10,000 gallons of a

A tank contains 10,000 gallons of a solution that is 5 percent sodium chloride by volume. If 2,500 gallons of water evaporate from the tank, the remaining solution will be approximately what percent sodium chloride?

1 Explanation

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Mike McGarry, Magoosh Tutor

Dec 28, 2013 • Comment

kiran Chandola

Out of 2500 gallons evaporated why did we not assume that some Nacl too would have evaporated and therefore only 375 gallons of Nacl would have been left rather than 500galloons.

Jul 5, 2014 • Reply

Carolyn Shasha, Magoosh Tutor

Hi Swaroop!

Happy to help :) It's important to read the question really carefully in these cases. Notice that the question states: "If 2500 gallons OF WATER evaporate". So we know from this that only water is evaporating - we can't make any other assumptions about the NaCl evaporating. With questions like this, we can always take the wording to be very literal :)

Hope that helps clear things up! :)

Jul 9, 2014 • Reply