The average volume of a drop of water is 0.05 mL. What would that volume be equal to in microliters?
The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
To convert the volume from milliliters (mL) to microliters (µL), you need to know the conversion factor between these two units.
1 milliliter (mL) is equal to 1,000 microliters (µL). This means:1 mL=1,000 μL1 \, \text{mL} = 1,000 \, \mu L1mL=1,000μL
Given that the volume of one drop of water is 0.05 mL, we can convert this to microliters by multiplying by 1,000:0.05 mL×1,000=50 μL0.05 \, \text{mL} \times 1,000 = 50 \, \mu L0.05mL×1,000=50μL
Thus, the volume of one drop of water is 50 microliters (µL).
Explanation:
When performing unit conversions, it’s important to understand the relationships between different units of measurement. In this case, we are converting between milliliters and microliters, both of which are part of the metric system. The metric system is based on powers of ten, which makes it straightforward to convert between units.
- A milliliter is a unit used to measure volume, and a microliter is also a unit of volume, but it’s much smaller. Since 1 milliliter equals 1,000 microliters, multiplying by 1,000 converts milliliters into microliters.
- The reason for this multiplication is based on the fact that 1 microliter (µL) is 10−610^{-6}10−6 liters, whereas 1 milliliter (mL) is 10−310^{-3}10−3 liters. So when you multiply 0.05 mL by 1,000, you are scaling up the value to match the smaller unit of microliters.
This conversion is useful when dealing with very small volumes, such as in chemistry, biology, or medicine, where precise measurements of liquids are often required.
