Question

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Balance the following reaction. A coefficient of "1" is understood. Choose option "blank" for the correct answer if the coefficient is "1."

C4H10 + O2 → CO2 + H2O

Answer 1

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Answer 2

This is a combustion reaction involving a hydrocarbon and oxygen. To solve this, you'll need to break it down into its basic components.

C4H10 (butane) is made of four carbons and ten hydrogens. Each one of those carbons will form a single molecule of carbon dioxide (CO2), whilst two hydrogens will form a single molecule of water (H2O).

So, you definitely need at least eight atoms of oxygen for the carbons and five atoms of oxygen for the water. This is problematic, though, since you can only get even amounts of oxygen. To fix this, you'll need to use two molecules of butane.

2C4H10 ---> 8 carbons, 20 hydrogens. You'll need 16 + 10 atoms of oxygen for this, which comes out to 26 atoms ---> 13 molecules.

We now have this reaction:

2C4H10 + 13O2 ---> 8CO2 + 10H2O

To check its validity, break it back down to atoms.

8C + 20H + 26O ---> 8C + 16O + 20H + 10O

Combine like terms...

8C + 20H + 26O ---> 8C + 20H + 26O

The two sides of the reaction are balanced, so the equation is valid!

The general process for combustion reactions is to figure out how many atoms of oxygen you'll need. If the number is even, you can continue. Otherwise, double the amount of the hydrocarbon and try again. Then, divide the needed oxygen atoms by two to get the number of oxygen molecules.

Answer 3

ok