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Question: Calculate concentration of Benzalkonium chloride with dilution

From my perspective:

  • Is it related to chemistry? yes
  • Is it a low effort post? no; clearly asked what I need and provided example of possible solution for which I am seeking validation

Now, is it an easy question? Probably. Maybe trivial to most people? Probably. But one cannot assume something obvious to some is obvious to all.

Closed as:

Homework questions must demonstrate some effort to understand the underlying concepts.

This is not even a homework question (though I see your definition of homework is quite broad), just having a simple doubt and seeking confirmation from more experience users in this field.

I really can't understand why such question should be closed. If it were allowed to stay open I bet someone would have answered sooner or later. If not I'd have started a bounty for some user to gain some points.

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As this is your first question here, (and there aren't other examples I can use), let's go through this from my point of view.

Considering a solution which is 20% Benzalkonium chloride and 80% water. Placing 10ml of such solution in 3700ml of water, how can I calculate the final concentration?

This is a vague thing in the first place. There are more than one type of percentages used to measure mixtures and this can be any one of them. However, from context, I can assume it's $V/V\%$. (Starts to look like a homework question to me, possible one liner of an answer, time to look for the effort put in)

We obtain a solution of 3710ml total, out of which 2ml are supposedly Benzalkonium chloride. Is the final concentration thus 2/3710*100 = 0.05% ?

Alright, you have given effort to the question. Maybe some formatting was in order, however that is excused. The major issue I see here though is that it has now become a question with a very simple answer. "Yes, you are correct." :(

Somebody could/should have responded in the comments but otherwise this is a question I would vote to close as well.

The AMIRITE policy

Sorry for your bad first experience here. Hope this doesn't ruin the fun of studying chemistry. Welcome to Chem SE

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  • $\begingroup$ I thank you for taking the time to reply and I agree with you: I would have welcome a comment by all the people who voted to close. I don't care if I get my answer in a comment or via reply. I just don't get how SE has become at all. I have used SEs for almost 12 years and I'm just shocked how it changed. I think the main purpose of these sites should to provide answers to people seeking them; instead it seems one should worry just about creating great content for SEs. I need help - I ask question. Don't want to help? Let some other do instead of closing. $\endgroup$
    – JoeSlav
    Commented Aug 9, 2022 at 19:25
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    $\begingroup$ @JoeSlav CH SE wants some quality level of the set of its Qs/As. There is no point in providing answers which already exist in hundreds of variants over internet and textbooks, like weak acid salt solution pH, which could be find easily and quickly. Or the trivial cases of solution dissolving // I often add: The site expects that you write explicit compact summary of your prior effort to answer the question, based on your knowledge and on searching for existing related info or answers. It helps preventing others to tell you what you already know or what you could easily find yourself. $\endgroup$
    – Poutnik
    Commented Aug 10, 2022 at 9:52
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    $\begingroup$ @JoeSlav If you understand the procedure properly, you do not need confirmation, you can do it yourself. If you do not understand it properly, you do not need confirmation either, you need to understand the procedure. For the latter, search for the procedure first. $\endgroup$
    – Poutnik
    Commented Aug 10, 2022 at 10:09
  • $\begingroup$ @Poutnik, exactly! The point of these websites is now to create quality content as opposed to help users. Users will be helped if they google stuff up and find Q/A but the actual users posting questions are basically tools and none cares. At least this is my opinion. See my comment below for possible better way to approach this. Cheers. $\endgroup$
    – JoeSlav
    Commented Aug 10, 2022 at 18:08
  • $\begingroup$ @JoeSlav I really do hope you stick around. $\endgroup$
    – Melanie Shebel
    Commented Aug 10, 2022 at 20:44
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    $\begingroup$ @JoeSlav Helping users means giving them what they need, not what they want. If a user did research, he should show the summary. Taking the user's word for it is tricky, as many times "I have searched internet and found nothing" means "I have not done even basic Google search with few mentioned keywords". $\endgroup$
    – Poutnik
    Commented Aug 10, 2022 at 23:27
  • $\begingroup$ @JoeSlav " Since my SE beginnings like 7y ago, all SE sites I took part profiled themselves not just being Q/A sites (as many webforums or Quora site do), but also keeping policy of some quality level for these Qs/As, like moderated Usenet groups did in old good times. This distinguishes SE from many sites that have minimal to no quality requirements. One can always post his question on Quora if one does not like it. $\endgroup$
    – Poutnik
    Commented Aug 18, 2022 at 14:07
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The post could have been closed for a number of reasons. Closing is done when a question is not particularly useful for any of the listed reasons, often because more information or significant editing is required. To add to what the other answer here on meta already states (your question was confusing and missing information), there are other posts on the site which could have led you to an answer, for instance this one and this one , and plenty more. As a visitor you are expected to do make some effort to see if a similar question has already been answered. One of the site's objectives is to avoid redundancy (multiple equivalent Qs) - which ironically is not the case in the examples I post above. Your Q would have added further to the bloat. Therefore, while you might edit the question to try to improve it, it is unlikely to be reopened.

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  • $\begingroup$ Your answer (for which I thank you) is inline with how SEs work nowadays: generally really unhelpful for people who are outside of a certain field. You all say "you are expected to do make some effort [..]" as you assume people don't spend maybe 1h researching before posting a question. In short, you are doing it wrong. You should have closed the question adding "duplicate, see this question" (other SEs do this). Or add a comment saying: "this makes no sense because of X". Either outcomes would have been more helpful as they would have pointed me towards what to study/research next. $\endgroup$
    – JoeSlav
    Commented Aug 10, 2022 at 18:04
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    $\begingroup$ @JoeSlav Yes, the most helpful way to close would have been based on identification of a duplicate. Did you search the site before posting? It is admittedly not always easy to find a highly relevant dupe, but in your case there appear to be many. Do not forget that SE sites are volunteer run and work on a democratic principle. There is no one dictating how a single post should be handled, and the people who closed yours found other reasons to do so. There are a number of features, which I point out, that indicate that it required attention (a precious commodity). $\endgroup$
    – Buck Thorn Mod
    Commented Aug 11, 2022 at 6:49

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