Saturday 5 May 2018

What does ppm mean?

This is an abbreviation for "parts per million" and it also can be expressed as milligrams per liter (mg/L). This measurement is the mass of a chemical or contaminate per unit volume of water. Seeing ppm or mg/L on a lab report means the same thing.
One ppm is equivalent to the absolute fractional amount multiplied by one million. A better way to think of ppm is to visualize putting four drops of ink in a 55-gallon barrel of water and mixing it thoroughly. This procedure would produce an ink concentration of 1 ppm. Some other analogies that may help you visualize the scale involved with ppm. One ppm is like:
  • one inch in 16 miles,
  • one second in 11.5 days,
  • one minute in two years.
An even smaller concentration measurement is parts per billion (ppb). One ppb is one part in 1 billion. Because a ppb is a much lower concentration, some analogies would be :
  • one sheet in a roll of toilet paper stretching from New York to London,
  • one second in nearly 32 years, or
  • one pinch of salt in 10 tons of potato chips

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