Question

How can I convert percent concentration to ppm?

Answer 1

The answer is based on the basic concepts of chemistry part which deals with the conversions of parameters where the percentage and ppm relates in the powers of 10 and the conversion is based on this fact.

Complete step by step answer:
- In the lower classes of general chemistry, we have dealt with some of the parts in chemistry in the topic called basic concepts of chemistry which tells about the inter - conversion of various parameters and calculations based on them.
Let us now discuss in brief about how to convert the given percent in the form of ppm.
- ppm is generally abbreviated as parts per million which is nothing but in terms of powers of 10 it is represented as ${{10}^{6}}$
- On the other hand percent is always measured as 100 wherein this can be written in terms of powers of 10 as ${{10}^{2}}$
- We know that one percent is equal to the one by hundredth of a number and therefore, if we take a simple percent to ppm conversion of 1percent then the conversion can be done easily.
- Now, in simple ways, we can write the conversion as,
1% = $\dfrac{1}{100}={{10}^{-2}}$
1 ppm will be $1 ppm={{10}^{6}}$
Thus, by simple cross multiplication rule, we can write as,
1% = ${{10}^{-2}}\times {{10}^{6}}={{10}^{4}} ppm$
Therefore 15 will be equal to ${{10}^{4}}$ ppm.
In this way, percent can be converted to ppm.
Note: Note that for any percentage in terms of grams is given, the same above formula can be used for the conversion of percent grams into the grams of solute in terms of parts per million.