36. A technician uses 288 g of salicylic acid to prepare 16 eight oz jars of salicylic acid in white petrolatum. What is the concentration of salicylic acid in the final product?
Answer: B
7.50%
The concentration of salicylic acid in the final product is 7.50%. This is derived by calculating the total volume of the preparation and the amount of salicylic acid used.
A) 6.25%
Option A is incorrect. To achieve a concentration of 6.25%, the amount of salicylic acid would need to be lower relative to the total volume of the product. The calculation does not support this value based on the given quantities.
B) 7.50%
Option B is correct. The total volume of the product is 128 oz (16 jars of 8 oz each), and with 288 g of salicylic acid, the concentration is calculated as (288 g / 128 oz) * 100%, which results in 7.50%.
C) 15%
Option C is incorrect. A concentration of 15% would imply that there is a significantly higher amount of salicylic acid in relation to the total volume than what was actually used. The calculations do not support this concentration.
D) 20%
Option D is also incorrect. A concentration of 20% would require an even greater amount of salicylic acid relative to the total volume. The data provided does not yield this percentage.
Conclusion
The correct concentration of salicylic acid is 7.50% as calculated from the total mass of salicylic acid and the total volume of the final product. All other options are incorrect as they do not align with the calculations based on the quantities provided.