Question

Many medical laboratory tests are run using 5.0 μL blood serum. What is this volume in milliliters?

Short answer

The volume of blood serum in millimeters is 5.0x10^-3mL.

Step-by-step solution

Describing the microliter and milliliter terms

Milliliter-

It is a unit based on volume. Capacity or volume is the measure for the storage of fluid. A cubic centimeter is also referred to as the milliliter. Acubic centimeteris the volume of a cube of exactly 1 cm of edge length. The milliliter isone-thousandthof Liter. It is denoted bycc.

\(1\,milliliter\,\, = \,1\,mL\,\, = \,\,1\,\, \times \,\,{10^{ - 3}}\,\,liter\)

Microliter -

It is also a unit based on volume. Capacity or volume is the measure for the storage of fluid. It isone-millionthof Liter andone-thousandthof a milliliter. It is denoted by μL.

\(1\,microliter\,\, = \,1\,\mu L\,\, = \,\,1\,\, \times \,\,{10^{ - 6}}\,\,liter\)

Converting the volume of blood serum from units of   to mL

It is given that the volume of blood serum is 5.0.

The conversion factor is given as

\(1\,\,\mu L\,\, = \,\,{10^{ - 3}}\,\,mL\,\, = \,\,{10^{ - 6}}\,\,L\)

Using the above equation to convert from to mL,

\(5.0\,\mu L\,\, = \,\,5.0\,\left( {\mu L\, \times \,\frac{{mL}}{{mL}}} \right)\,\, = \,\,5.0\,\,\left( {{{10}^{ - 6}}\,L\, \times \,\frac{{{{10}^{ - 3}}\,L}}{{{{10}^{ - 3}}\,L}}\,} \right)\, = \,\,5.0\, \times \,{10^{ - 3}}\,mL\)

Therefore, the volume of blood serum is5.0 10^-3mL.

It is given that the volume of blood serum is 5.0.

The conversion factor is given as

\(1\,\,\mu L\,\, = \,\,{10^{ - 3}}\,\,mL\,\, = \,\,{10^{ - 6}}\,\,L\)

Using the above equation to convert from to mL,

\(5.0\,\mu L\,\, = \,\,5.0\,\left( {\mu L\, \times \,\frac{{mL}}{{mL}}} \right)\,\, = \,\,5.0\,\,\left( {{{10}^{ - 6}}\,L\, \times \,\frac{{{{10}^{ - 3}}\,L}}{{{{10}^{ - 3}}\,L}}\,} \right)\, = \,\,5.0\, \times \,{10^{ - 3}}\,mL\)

Therefore, the volume of blood serum is 5.0x10^-3mL.