Chapter 17, Problem 10TE

Solution

To determine: The reason of getting a volume of $\text{90 mL}$ on mixing $\text{50 mL}$ of small BB’s and $\text{50 mL}$ of large BB’s

Answer:

The smaller molecules occupy the empty spaces within the larger sized molecules.

Explanation:

$\text{50 mL}$ of small BB’s are when combined with $\text{50 mL}$ of large BB’s, a total of $\text{90 mL}$ BB’s of mixed size are obtained rather than $\text{100 mL}$ , it is due to the reason that due to the difference in the sizes of the individual molecules that many of the small size BB’s are able to fit into the small empty spaces within the large sized BB’s. So they do not add up to give $\text{100 mL}$.

Conclusion:

Therefore, small sized BB’s occupy some of the empty spaces within the large sized BB’s, the total volume of $\text{90 mL}$ of mixed sized BB’s are obtained.