Now "react" methane (CH4) with oxygen (O2) to produce carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). Start with one molecule of methane and one molecule of oxygen. Continue reacting molecules of CH4 and O2 until all the reactant atoms have been used to form products.
Summarize what happened in this reactant.
___CH4 + ___O2---> ___CO2 + ___H2O
Again, what do you not understand?
In this reaction, methane (CH4) and oxygen (O2) react to produce carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). To understand what happens in the reaction, we need to balance the equation by determining the coefficients for the reactants and products.
Let's start by balancing the carbon atoms. We have one carbon atom in methane (CH4) and one carbon atom in carbon dioxide (CO2). To balance the carbon atoms, we place a coefficient of 1 in front of CO2.
Now let's move on to balancing the hydrogen atoms. We have four hydrogen atoms in methane (CH4) and two hydrogen atoms in water (H2O). To balance the hydrogen atoms, we place a coefficient of 2 in front of H2O.
Next, let's balance the oxygen atoms. We have two oxygen atoms in oxygen (O2) and two oxygen atoms in carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). We need four oxygen atoms to balance the equation. To achieve that, we place a coefficient of 2 in front of O2.
The balanced equation becomes:
CH4 + 2O2 ---> CO2 + 2H2O
So, the summary of the reaction is that one molecule of methane (CH4) reacts with two molecules of oxygen (O2) to produce one molecule of carbon dioxide (CO2) and two molecules of water (H2O).