When the following combustion reaction is balanced using the smallest whole number coefficients, determine the coefficients for oxygen: C(5)H(10)0(2) is reacted with oxygen gas.
First of all post the equation with no coefficients.
The balanced equation for the combustion reaction of C5H10O2 with oxygen gas can be written as:
C5H10O2 + O2 -> CO2 + H2O
Now, to determine the coefficients for oxygen, we need to balance the equation by ensuring that the same number of each type of atom appears on both sides of the equation.
Let's begin by counting the number of each type of atom on each side of the equation:
On the left side (reactants):
C: 5
H: 10
O: 2 (from C5H10O2)
O: 2 (from O2)
On the right side (products):
C: 1 (from CO2)
H: 2 (from H2O)
O: 3 (from CO2)
O: 1 (from H2O)
Since the number of oxygen atoms is not balanced, we need to adjust the coefficient in front of O2 to balance it.
To do this, we can simply increase the coefficient in front of O2 until the number of oxygen atoms on both sides of the equation is equal. In this case, we need 2 extra oxygen atoms on the left side, so we'll set the coefficient in front of O2 to 2:
C5H10O2 + 2O2 -> CO2 + H2O
After balancing, the coefficients for oxygen are: O2 -> 2O2
Therefore, the balanced equation with the smallest whole number coefficients is:
C5H10O2 + 2O2 -> 5CO2 + 5H2O