A compound containg 3 atoms of carbon and 8 atoms of hydrogen is combined in a reaction with oxygen molecules. The two end products of this equation are carbon dioxide (CO2) and water. What element should you look at first in balancing this equation? Is the answer a.b.c or d?
a. oxygen
b. hydrogen
c. carbon
d. Dioxide
When you have finished balancing the equation for the above question, which chemical element will have the largest number of molecules in your balanced equation? choose a. b. c. or d?
a. the C3H
b. the oxygen
c. the carbon dioxide
d. the water
What do you not understand about balancing equations? I can balance the equation and give you the answers to both questions but that won't help you in the future. Start with C and go from there.
To balance the chemical equation, you need to ensure that the number of atoms of each element is the same on both sides of the equation.
In this case, you have 3 carbon atoms and 8 hydrogen atoms on one side of the equation, and carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) as the end products.
To start balancing, you should look at the element with the fewest atoms on one side of the equation. In this case, carbon has only 3 atoms, whereas both hydrogen and oxygen have 8 atoms.
Therefore, you should look at the element carbon first to balance the equation.
The answer to the first question is c. carbon.
Now, let's balance the equation:
C3H8 + O2 -> CO2 + H2O
To balance the carbon, you need 3 carbon dioxide molecules (3CO2) on the product side.
C3H8 + O2 -> 3CO2 + H2O
Now, let's look at the hydrogen. On the reactant side, you have 8 hydrogen atoms, which can be balanced by placing a coefficient of 4 in front of the water (4H2O).
C3H8 + O2 -> 3CO2 + 4H2O
Finally, let's balance the oxygen. On the reactant side, you have 2 oxygen atoms in the oxygen molecule, but on the product side, you have 2 oxygen atoms in each carbon dioxide molecule (6 in total) and 4 oxygen atoms in the water molecule (4 in total). Thus, you have a total of 10 oxygen atoms.
To balance the oxygen, you need 5 oxygen molecules (5O2).
C3H8 + 5O2 -> 3CO2 + 4H2O
Now that the equation is balanced, we can determine which chemical element will have the largest number of molecules.
In the balanced equation, for every 1 molecule of C3H8, you have 3 molecules of CO2 and 4 molecules of H2O.
So, the answer to the second question is c. the carbon dioxide.