You\'ve got a job and can afford to build the new house you\'ve always dreamed o

Question

You've got a job and can afford to build the new house you've always dreamed of! The average new house needs about 90 kg (198 poinds) of copper for electrical wiring. To get this copper, someone will need to mine ore (the solid rock that contains copper-bearing minerals) and extract the copper minerals, throw away the waste rock, and smelt the copper minerals to produce copper metal. Ore deposits mined for copper around the world typically contain only very small percentages of copper - about 0.7% of the rock.

1) What is the total weight in kilograms of the rock ore you will need to extract to get 90kg of copper? hint: 90 kg is 0.007 of the unknown total volume

2) Subtract 90 kg of copper from this total volume, what is the weight of the rock waste that will be discarded after mining, extracting, and smelting process?

3) According to the 2000 National Census there are about 7,815,366 homes in California...What is the total weight of (a) copper needed to wire all of these homes, and (b) what is the total weight of the rock waste produced by the production of this copper?

Explanation / Answer

1)

.007Kg copper in 1Kg of rock

So 1 Kg of copper will be = 1/0.007

And 90 Kg of copper wll be = (1/0.007)*90

= 12857.14 Kg of Rock

2)

Rock waste will be = 12857.14 - 90 =12767.14 Kg

3)

a) copper needed = 90* 7815366 = 703382940 Kg

b) rock waste = 12767.14 * 7815366 = 9.97 * 1010

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse Y
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.