When ethane reacts with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and water. When 10 molecules of ethane react with 20 molecules of oxygen, what is the composition of the FINAL mixture?
I would balance the equation:
C2H4+3O2 >> 2CO2 + 2H2O
So it looks to me as if you did not have enough oxygen, which means, only 2/3 of the ethane was consumed.
So you have an issue, as molecules only occur in whole number.
I see
4 molecules C2H4 ; six consumed
2 molecules O2 left; 18 consumed
CO2; six made
H2O; twelve made
To determine the composition of the final mixture, we need to first balance the chemical equation for the reaction between ethane and oxygen.
The balanced equation for the reaction is:
2 C2H6 + 7 O2 -> 4 CO2 + 6 H2O
According to the balanced equation, for every 2 molecules of ethane (C2H6), we need 7 molecules of oxygen (O2) to react completely. This means that if we have 10 molecules of ethane, we would require (10/2) * 7 = 35 molecules of oxygen.
However, the question states that we have 20 molecules of oxygen. Since we have an excess amount of oxygen, it means all the 10 molecules of ethane will react, and there will still be some oxygen left over.
To find the composition of the final mixture, we need to determine the amounts of each product formed.
From the balanced equation, we can see that for every 2 molecules of ethane, we obtain 4 molecules of carbon dioxide (CO2) and 6 molecules of water (H2O).
Therefore, when 10 molecules of ethane react, we will have:
10 molecules of ethane -> 10/2 = 5 molecules of CO2
10 molecules of ethane -> 10/2 * 3 = 15 molecules of H2O
Since we have an excess of 20 molecules of oxygen, all 10 molecules of ethane will react, but we will have oxygen left over.
The remaining oxygen can be calculated as:
Excess oxygen = 20 - (10/2 * 7) = 20 - 35 = -15 molecules
It's important to note that negative numbers of molecules don't make sense in reality. This indicates that there is an excess of oxygen after the reaction, and the final mixture will contain oxygen that has not reacted.
So, the composition of the final mixture is 5 molecules of carbon dioxide, 15 molecules of water, and an excess of 15 molecules of unreacted oxygen.