In this problem, you are to find out how much faster helium diffuses than chlorine. To find the rate of diffusion, To find out, you put the square root of the density of the second one over the density of the first one. The density of chlorine is .003214. The density of helium is .00017847. When my son and I did this problem, we put the density of helium over the density of chlorine and took the square root of both of them. When he worked it out on his calculator, we got the answer 2. However, the book says the answer is 4.2. The formula for the rate of diffusion is rate1/rate2
= the square root of density2/density1. Were we supposed to divide them and then take the square root?
= the square root of density2/density1. Were we supposed to divide them and then take the square root?