A. Stoichiometry One of the most important reactions in biology is photosynthesi

Question

A. Stoichiometry

One of the most important reactions in biology is photosynthesis. In this complex chemical process, plants combine molecules of carbon dioxide and water to create glucose and oxygen. The reaction looks something like the following.

CO2 + H2O C6H12O6 + O2

Of course the number of atoms don't balance on the two sides. You might be able to intuit your way to the correct counting (stoichiometry), but let's do it systematically by setting up equations.

1.Write the reaction as

a CO2 + b H2O c C6H12O6 + d O2

where a, b, c, and d are meant to be integers adjusted so that the number of each kind of atoms balance on each side. For this reaction, we have three kinds of atoms that must balance: carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O). Write three equations for a, b, c, and d that, if satisfied, will guarantee that the number of atoms of each kind are the same on each side of the reaction.

2.Find the smallest set of integers that will satisfy these equations.

a=

b=

c=

d=

3. We only had three equations but we had four unknowns. That usually produces an undetermined situation in math. How did we find a unique solution?

Explanation / Answer

stoichiometry of phtosynthesis:

6CO2 + 6H2O C6H12O6 + 6 O2

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