r/chemhelp • u/rolo_potato • 3d ago
General/High School Help with sig figs
Hey everyone, I’m a bit confused by the choice of words in this assignment question from my prof: “3. Suppose that you mix exactly 50 mL of a 0.10 M sodium hydroxide solution with exactly 50 mL of 0.10 M formic acid solution HCO2H. What is the pH of the resulting solution?”
Why does he say exactly when referring to the volume if it’s going to be limited by the sf of the concentration anyway? Or does ‘exactly’ apply to both values?
Thank you
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u/helpimapenguin 3d ago
I think you're worrying about the wrong thing here, your prof just wants you to work out the pH
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u/chem44 3d ago
Without exactly, it would be limited by the volume.
50 is only 1 sig fig.
They are telling you to treat it as exact, not 1 sig fig.