Chapter 36, Problem 24P

You are working as an expert witness for an attorney who is suing a shipping company. The company operates ships that carry crude oil across the oceans. One ship suffered an oil spill, in which the spilled oil spreads out into a slick, forming a thin film that floats on the ocean surface. The legal issue is whether or not the ship spilled more or less than a volume of 10.0 m³ of oil into the ocean. You are reading documents that describe the oil slick on the ocean surface. In one document, you find out that reflection tests were performed on the oil slick. These tests showed that the ocean surface showed a maximum of interference for 500-nm light over a circular area of radius 4.25 km surrounding the location at which the spill occurred. At distances farther from the location, the ocean surface showed no constructive interference, indicating that no oil was present. The type of oil involved has an index of refraction of n = 1.25. Determine for the attorney the minimum amount of oil that was spilled.