Finding concentration of an incoming solution

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Homework Statement



A tank holds 10 L of pure water. Brine (unknown constant concentration) is flowing into the tank at 1 L/min. The water is mixed well and drained at 1 L/min. After 20 min, there are 15 g of salt left in the tank. What is the concentration of the salt in the incoming brine?

Homework Equations



The Attempt at a Solution



Let A(t) = amount of salt (g) at time t (min).
I can see that A(20) = 15, but I'm confused on how I should set up the diff eq.

I know that A'(t) = (concentration of incoming * rate of incoming) - (concentration of outgoing * rate of outgoing)

I let
r = concentration of incoming
s = concentration of outgoing​
so I think that gives me
##\dfrac{dA}{dt} = (r \frac{g}{L})(1 \frac{L}{min}) - (\frac{1}{10} s \frac{g}{L})(1 \frac{L}{min})##

##\dfrac{dA}{dt} = r - \frac{1}{10} s##

But then I've no idea where to go from here.
 
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Why are you dividing the concentration of outgoing by 10?
How is the quantity of salt in the tank, A, related to the outgoing concentration, given that it's well mixed?
 
haruspex said:
Why are you dividing the concentration of outgoing by 10?
How is the quantity of salt in the tank, A, related to the outgoing concentration, given that it's well mixed?
Well, the concentration of the solution in the tank at any point would be (amount of salt in tank)/(volume of tank), so I figure the concentration of the outgoing solution ##s## at any given time will be ##\frac{A}{10}##. Looks like I'd mistaken ##s## for ##A##. Is that it? Thanks for the reply
 
SithsNGiggles said:
Looks like I'd mistaken ##s## for ##A##. Is that it?
Yes, that's what it looked like.
 
Ah, okay, thanks for that.

So I've got the equation
##\dfrac{dA}{dt} + \frac{1}{10}A = r##, which gives me the general solution
##A = 10x + Ce^{-\frac{1}{10}t}##.

Using A(0) = 0,
##0 = 10x + C##,
##C = -10x##.

Using A(20) = 15,
##15 = 10x - 10x e^{-2}##
##x = \dfrac{15}{10(1-e^{-2})}##
##x \approx 1.735 \frac{g}{L}##.

Can someone check my work on that? I'd hate to make another mistake. Thanks!
 
Looks right to me.
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
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