The following chemical equation shows the incomplete formula for burning methanol. The question mark represents the unknown number of oxygen (O2) molecules. How many molecules of O2 are needed to balance this chemical equation?
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The balanced equation for burning methanol is:
CH3OH + ?O2 -> CO2 + H2O
To balance the equation, we need to determine the unknown number of O2 molecules.
Looking at the carbon (C) and hydrogen (H) atoms on both sides of the equation, we see that they are already balanced.
On the left side, we have 1 carbon (C) atom, while on the right side, we have 1 carbon (C) atom in CO2. This is balanced.
On the left side, we have 4 hydrogen (H) atoms, while on the right side, we have 2 hydrogen (H) atoms in H2O. This is also balanced.
Therefore, the only thing left to balance is the oxygen (O) atoms.
On the left side, we have 1 oxygen (O) atom in CH3OH, while on the right side, we have 2 oxygen (O) atoms in CO2 and 1 oxygen (O) atom in H2O. This gives a total of 3 oxygen (O) atoms on the right side.
Since we need an equal number of oxygen (O) atoms on both sides, we need ? = 3 O2 molecules.
Therefore, we need 3 molecules of O2 to balance this chemical equation. Answer: 3.
To balance the chemical equation for burning methanol (CH3OH), we need to determine the number of oxygen (O2) molecules needed. The given equation is:
CH3OH + ?O2 → CO2 + H2O
We can start by counting the number of carbon (C) atoms on both sides of the equation. On the left-hand side, there is one carbon atom (from CH3OH), and on the right-hand side, there is one carbon atom (from CO2). Therefore, the number of carbon atoms is balanced.
Next, we count the number of hydrogen (H) atoms. On the left-hand side, there are four hydrogen atoms (from CH3OH), and on the right-hand side, there are two hydrogen atoms (from H2O). To balance the hydrogen atoms, we need to multiply H2O by 2, resulting in:
CH3OH + ?O2 → CO2 + 2H2O
Now, let's count the number of oxygen (O) atoms. On the left-hand side, there is one oxygen atom (from CH3OH), and on the right-hand side, there are two oxygen atoms (one from CO2 and two from H2O). Therefore, we have a total of three oxygen atoms.
Since one oxygen molecule (O2) contains two oxygen atoms, we can convert the number of oxygen atoms to molecules by dividing by 2:
3 oxygen atoms / 2 = 1.5 oxygen molecules
We cannot have half a molecule, so we round up to the nearest whole number. Therefore, we need 2 molecules of O2 to balance the chemical equation for burning methanol.
To balance the chemical equation, we need to determine the number of molecules of O2 that are required to burn methanol completely.
The given equation is:
CH3OH + ?O2 → ?CO2 + ?H2O
We know that methanol (CH3OH) contains a total of 6 atoms of hydrogen (H) and 1 atom of carbon (C). For the combustion reaction to be balanced, the number of atoms of hydrogen and carbon on both sides of the equation should be equal.
In methanol, there are two hydrogen atoms (H2) for each molecule. So, we need to find the number of oxygen molecules (O2) that provide enough oxygen atoms to combine with all the hydrogen atoms from methanol.
Since each molecule of O2 consists of two oxygen atoms (O2), we can say that:
Number of oxygen atoms required = 6 atoms of hydrogen (from methanol)
Number of oxygen molecules needed = (Number of oxygen atoms required) / (Number of oxygen atoms in O2)
Number of oxygen molecules needed = 6 atoms of hydrogen / 2 atoms of oxygen
Number of oxygen molecules needed = 3
Thus, 3 molecules of O2 are needed to balance the given chemical equation. Therefore, the correct answer is 3.