May Day! May Day!......Sometime today!

 

Mr. Slug has invented a device, which when worn snugly on the mantle, held

on to with the foot and switched on using an optical tentacle, allows a slug

 to fly effortlessly through the air. This is achieved by the use of a pressurized

 cylindrical vessel which contains a variety of volatile compounds:

Ethyl ether, ethyl alcohol and water. The mollecular reaction of the volatile

 compounds takes place inside a very strong cylinder made entirely of aluminum

 foam, a material so light that it floats on

water. It is, however, very strong stuff - the outer skins are layers of aluminum sheet

and the inner layer a clever mix of titanium metal hydride and aluminum powder.

These are baked to a silvery perfection until it rises, making it much lighter than the

usual steel outer casing.

To this chemical cocktail, Mr. Slug adds just a pinch of slug slime which results in
a highly pressurized bunch of slime bubbles inside the tube. As the bubbles pop,
they explode in a process that resembles indigestion. This frightening, bubbling
chemical melange has the ability to lift the wearer of the device right off the ground
and into the air!

Join us now in the control room at Slug Propulsion Labs (SPL) in Pasadena,
California as Mr. Slug prepares for launch! You can see him way up there, he's just
a speck now, surrounded by a technical flight crew and members of the media.

Mr. Slug will be projected from the launch pad at a trajectory set at a 75 degree angle
pointing North/Northwest. Variable winds are blowing at a favorable 4 knots and all
systems are GO! "10...9.8.7.6....5.4. Launch has been delayed for the technicians to
repair a goo ring................Countdown has resumed........."10....9.........8..........7............6...
....5....4...........3..2.1.......Mr. Slug has pushed the bubble ignition switch with his
optical tentacle!!!!!!!!!!!! The rocket is beginning to bubble furiously!!!

WE'VE GOT POP-OFF!!!!!!!!!!!

Back in the control room at SPL, some of the brightest minds in science are attempting
to make Mr. Slugs historic first flight a successful one! 

Mr. Slug is flying! He has done it! There is only one problem...........

........How is he going to turn this thing off so he can land??!! Mr. Slug is in radio
contact with ground control.  (Cue the music...Ground control to Major Slug...)

Here is the problem we need to solve to get Mr. Slug safely back to Earth:

To neutralize a sour digester, one pound of lime is to be added for every pound of
volatile acids in the digester sludge. If the digester contains 195,000 gal of sludge
with a volatile acid (VA) level of 2100 mg/L,  how many pounds of lime should be added?

If you know the answer to this question, please submit it to the lab immediately!