When methane is burned with oxygen, the products are carbon dioxide and water. I

Question

When methane is burned with oxygen, the products are carbon dioxide and water. If you produce 18 grams of water from 8 grams of methane and 32 grams of oxygen, how many grams of carbon dioxide were produced in this reaction?

Explanation / Answer

8 CH4 + 32 H2O ----> 18 H2O + ___CO2 On the left side of the equation, there are 8 carbons, 96 hydrogen, and 32 oxygen On the right side of the equation, there are 36 hydrogens, (as far as we know) 20 oxygens, and (as far as we know) 1 carbon. Evidently, there has to be more H2O that is formed than it says, or just hydrogen gas is formed. Let's assume that just hydrogen gas is formed. This means there will be 60 individual hydrogen atoms formed. Now that hydrogens are set, let's look at oxygen. There needs to be 12 more oxygen on the right side of the equation, so if we put a 7 in front of the CO2, there will be 32 oxygens on both sides. Let's check up. There are 96 hydrogens on both sides of the equation, 32 oxygens on both sides, and 8 carbon on the right side and 7 carbon on the left side. This indicates that there has to be two oxygen atoms taken from the H2O to give to CO2 so that we can make the number in front of CO2 an 8. If we take the oxygen atoms, we also have to take hydrogen atoms away from the H2O and put it in the stockpile of individual hydrogen atoms. This means, the equation should look like this: 8 CH4 + 32 H2O ----> 16 H2O + 8 CO2 + 64 H However, hydrogen doesn't sit individually, instead in sets of 2. ANSWER: 8 CH4 + 32 H2O ----> 16 H2O + 8 CO2 + 32 H2

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