Question

In the equation ___CH4 + ___O2 ___CO2 + ___H2O, what number will go in front of the H2O to balance the equation?

Answer 1

idk that is hard lol

Answer 2

I guess what you mean is
___CH4 + ___O2 --> ___CO2 + ___H2O
is that right?

Answer 3

yes

Answer 4

yeah i was going tay what james said

Answer 5

lol

Answer 6

hi james it is snowball

Answer 7

i got banned made another acount thoe

Answer 8

well the number of atoms of each element has to balance on both sides. So if we start with one CH4 atom, we must have one CO2 atom:
1 CH4 + ___O2 --> 1 CO2 + ___H2O

Now, what can you say about the other two atoms?

(Hi online/snowball)

Answer 9

hi james

Answer 10

that there are a 2 of them

Answer 11

yeah

Answer 12

Did you see why with one CH4 molecule there must be one CO2 molecule?

That is because with one CH4 molecule, there is only one carbon atom on the left-hand side. So there must only be one carbon atom on the right-hand side.

Answer 13

ok. I understand

Answer 14

good

Answer 15

So right now we have that
1 CH4 + ___O2 --> 1 CO2 + ___H2O

Now, given that, how many hydrogen atoms must there be on the RHS (right hand side)?

Answer 16

4?

Answer 17

Yes. And hence how many water molecules H2O must there be?

Answer 18

4

Answer 19

No. Each water molecule has two hydrogen atoms, that's why we write H2O and not HO

Answer 20

so it's 2?

Answer 21

yes

Answer 22

Yes. Hence we now have that
1 CH4 + ___O2 --> 1 CO2 + 2 H2O

Now, count up the oxygen atoms on the RHS and figure out how many O2 molecules we need on the LHS.

Answer 23

2

Answer 24

omh lhs iw my highschool i use to go to

Answer 25

right. So the final answer is
1 CH4 + 2 O2 --> 1 CO2 + 2 H2O

Answer 26

ok thank you

Answer 27

no problem

Answer 28

You can see that there are some more questions like this here; scroll down a bit. You might find it useful to have a look at them.

Answer 29

ok. I will