A fishing boat accidentally spills 3.0 barrels of diesel oil into the ocean. each barrel contains 42 gallons. if the oil film on the ocean is 2.5 * 102 nm thick, how many square meters will the oil slick cover?

Number of barrels are 3.0. Each barrel contains 42 gallons of oil. Thus, total volume of oil will be 42*3=126 gallons.

Converting gallons into m^{3}

1 gallon=0.00378 m^{3}

Thus, 126 gallons=0.4769 m^{3}

Thickness of oil film is 2.5/times 10^{2} nm, converting it into meters as follows:

1 nm=10^{-9} m

Thus,

2.5/times 10^{2} nm=1.5/times 10^{-7}m

Now, volume V of oil is related to area A and thickness T as follows:

V=A*T

rearranging,

A=/frac{V}{T}=/frac{0.4769 m^{3}}{2/times 10^{-7}m}=2.38/times 10^{6}m^{2}

Thus, square meters of oil will be 2.38/times 10^{6}m^{2}