You have developed a reputation as an expert in transport phenomena and this time Vincent Gambini (who made quite a career for himself after the eponymous movie “My Cousin Vinny” and is now working for the DA office in that small Alabama town) is asking for your help on a case he is working on. Some months ago, people fishing on a river 2 miles below the Reynolds & Schmidt chemical plant noted small particles bobbing around and being carried downstream by the river flow. Suspicious that there could be a problem, they collected some of these particles and handed them to the local DEQ office, which determined that they are made of a chemical that is very toxic to aquatic life. The case is now being tried in court with Reynolds & Schmidt accused of illegally dumping these toxic particles in the river. Vinny, as the lead prosecutor, has argued that Reynolds & Schmidt produces this chemical in the form of solid spherical pellets, 2 mm in diameter, and a witness has testified that he saw some Reynolds & Schmidt employees unloading drums containing what looked like the same particles along the river bank at the Reynolds & Schmidt location exactly 2 h before the fisherman observed these particles. “Surely, Reynolds & Schmidt is responsible!” says Vinny. The defense does not dispute these facts, but has argued that whatever was in those drums could not have been the toxic particles in question since, surely, they would have been completely dissolved after 2 h in the river and the fisherman could not have seen them. “Those particles must have come from somewhere else and Reynolds & Schmidt is not responsible. The prosecution case does not hold water!” says the lead defense lawyer. There is no time for measurements, but we know that the chemical structure of the chemical in question is:

The solid particles are essentially neutrally buoyant and the solubility of the chemical in water is 0.4 kg/m³. That faithful day the river temperature was 20°C and the average stream velocity was 1 m/s. Vinny wants you to testify as an “expert witness” to rebut the defense’s argument. What would your expert testimony be?

Transcribed Image Text:

CH,-NH-CAO O CH CH