how many H2O molecules can be formed from 200 H2 molecules and 200 O2 molecules?

Hi Brittney,

The solution is as follows:

Always start with the basic equation:
H2 + O2 -----> H2O(l)

Balancing the equation above gives:
2H2 + O2------> 2H2O(l)

Since 200 molecules of H2 & O2 are involved,just multiply the equation above with 200,
200(2H2 + O2)---->200(2H2O)

which gives
400H2 + 200 O2------> 400 H2O(l)

The answer is 400 water molecules

Hope my explanation helps :)

I disagree with the answer of 400 molecules H2O produced. Only 200 will be produced.

This is a limiting reagent problem. I work these by calculating, with two separate calculations, the amount of H2O that can be formed, then using the smaller value. For example,
If we take 200 molecules H2 and all of the O2 we need, we could produce
200 H2 molecules x (2 mols H2O/2 mol H2) = 200 molecules H2O.

If we take 200 molecules O2 and all of the H2 we need, we could produce
200 O2 molecules x (2 moles H2O/1 mol O2) = 400 molecules H2O.

So you get 200 for one answer; 400 for another answer and that means one of them is wrong. The correct value in limiting reagent problems is ALWAYS the smaller value and the reagent producing that number is the limiting reagent. Therefore, you can produce 200 molecules H2O and you will have some O2 remain unreacted. You can calculate how much O2 remains this way.
200 molecules H2 x (1 mol O2/2 mols H2) = 100 molecules O2 used in the reaction
Since you had 200 molecules O2 initially and used 100, you must have 100 O2 molecules that didn't react.

thank you!

Thank you Dr.Bob, now I know my mistake.

To determine the maximum number of H2O molecules that can be formed, we need to consider the balanced chemical equation for the reaction between hydrogen gas (H2) and oxygen gas (O2) to form water (H2O):

2H2 + O2 -> 2H2O

The equation shows that for every 2 molecules of hydrogen gas and 1 molecule of oxygen gas, we get 2 molecules of water.

Given that we have 200 molecules of H2 and 200 molecules of O2, we can calculate the maximum number of water molecules that can be formed by dividing the number of reactant molecules by their respective coefficients in the balanced equation.

First, let's calculate the number of water molecules that can be formed from 200 molecules of H2:

Number of H2O molecules = (Number of H2 molecules) / 2

Number of H2O molecules = 200 / 2 = 100

Next, let's calculate the number of water molecules that can be formed from 200 molecules of O2:

Number of H2O molecules = (Number of O2 molecules) / 1

Number of H2O molecules = 200 / 1 = 200

Now, since we have two different values for the number of water molecules formed, we need to determine the limiting reactant. The limiting reactant is the reactant that is completely consumed and determines the maximum amount of product that can be formed. In this case, the limiting reactant will be the reactant that produces the smaller amount of water molecules.

From the calculations above, we can see that 100 water molecules can be formed from the given 200 H2 molecules, while 200 water molecules can be formed from the given 200 O2 molecules. Therefore, hydrogen gas (H2) is the limiting reactant in this reaction.

Thus, the maximum number of H2O molecules that can be formed is 100.