A container of liquid chlorine has a concentration of \(1,250 \mathrm{ppm}\). What is the percent concentration of the solution?

Parts per million (PPM) is a unit of measurement used to describe the concentration of a substance in a solution. When we say a solution has a certain PPM, we mean that there are this many parts of a substance in one million parts of the total solution.
For example, if you have a concentration of 1,250 PPM for liquid chlorine, it means there are 1,250 parts of chlorine in every 1,000,000 parts of the solution.
PPM is a very useful unit of measurement for extremely dilute solutions, where it would be impractical to express concentrations as a percentage or other units.
Remember, PPM is particularly handy in fields like chemistry, environmental science, and medicine to measure trace concentrations accurately.

Concentration calculations allow us to understand how much solute (substance being dissolved) is present in a given amount of solvent (the substance doing the dissolving) or solution.
These calculations are crucial when preparing solutions in laboratories and for industrial applications to ensure correct ratios.
There are multiple ways to express concentration, including molarity, molality, weight/volume percent, and PPM. In our exercise, we see the concentration expressed in PPM.
To convert this to a more easily understood percentage, we follow a few straightforward steps:

• We start with our PPM value.
• We use a set formula to convert PPM to percent concentration (this formula helps standardize results).
• This final conversion aids in practical understanding and application.

By doing concentration calculations, we translate abstract unit measurements into practical, usable numbers.

Conversion formulas are mathematical tools that help us change one unit of measurement to another. This is essential in scientific work to ensure consistency and accuracy when comparing different sets of data.
In our specific case, we use a conversion formula to turn PPM into a percentage.
The formula for converting PPM to percentage is: \( \text{Percentage} = \frac{\text{PPM}}{10,000} \)
Let’s walk through the formula using the given value of 1,250 PPM:

• First, insert the PPM value into the formula: \( \frac{1,250}{10,000} \)
• Next, perform the division operation: \( 0.125 \)
• The result, 0.125, means the percentage concentration is 0.125%.

This process converts a more technical figure (PPM) into a more intuitive one (percentage), which can easily be understood and applied in various contexts.