Parts Per Million & Parts Per Billion

What’s the connection between sea monsters, skunks and parts per million?

Some useful numbers when doing the calculations 100 = 1x10 2 (hundred) 1,000,000 = 1x10 6 (million) 1,000,000,000 = 1x10 9 (billion) 1,000,000,000,000 = 1x10 12 (trillion)

The equation(s) Note: It doesn’t have to be in mass this is just the standard measure used in industry and science.

The risk of trying to look young!

Botox is the commercial name for the bacterial botulinum neurotoxin. It is one of the most potent toxins known to man! Approximately 7.0x10 -8 g of the toxin Is the dosage necessary to kill half the class. What does that look like in ppm or ppb? Assume a piece of pizza weighs 130g The dose of toxin in the pizza would be 0.5 ppb

What about in a swimming pool? Let’s say the class went for a swim in an olympic sized pool and each student accidentally swallowed 100 g of water. What would be the ppb to kill half the class?

If the pool was accidentally contaminated with botulim. How much would it take to get 0.7 ppb? ppb = 0.7 M solution = 2.5x10 9 g (water in an olympic pool)

Worksheet