Chemistry 1001
Recitation Topics #2
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INSTRUCTIONS: Come prepared to ask questions leading to a quiz based on these
problems. The problems may be discussed during recitation prior to the quiz, and there
may be some preparations first. These problems also serve as one source of questions for
midterm and final exams.
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1. For Thanksgiving, you drive from LSU to grandma's house in Florida, a distance of 383 miles,
in 6 hours. After dinner, you press on to your Uncle Bill's beach home. He lives 12.3 miles from
Grandma.
a) What is the total distance from dorm to Uncle Bill's beach home? USE THE
CORRECT NUMBER OF SIGNIFICANT DIGITS.
_______________ miles
b) If Uncle Bill asks how fast you drove on the way to Grandma's, what should you tell
him? AGAIN, USE CORRECT SIGNIFICANT FIGURES!
_______________ miles/hour
2. Convert that average speed from Problem 8 to football fields (1 football field = 100 yards) per
fortnight.
_______________ footballfields/fortnight
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3. This problem shows how errors can propagate; sometimes they worsen, and sometimes they
shrink. In our research lab, we often measure a certain quantity called the "specific refractive
index increment" which has the symbol,  (Greek: nu). We must measure  accurately, because
its square (i.e., 2) is what we actually use (to measure the mass of the molecules that make
plastics). Suppose we measure  = 0.105  0.003 cm3/g. Write an expression for 2,
as in 2 = _____  ______ (units)
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2 = ______  _______ (_______)
4. Estimate the volume of Choppin Lobby in milliliters.
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