You may recall that the products of the complete combustion of a
hydrocarbon are water vapor and carbon dioxide gas. Write the balanced
equation showing the combustion of methane. Do not forget to include the
states of matter of the reactants and the products. Hint: Methane is a gas at
standard temperature and pressure

Question

You may recall that the products of the complete combustion of a
hydrocarbon are water vapor and carbon dioxide gas. Write the balanced
equation showing the combustion of methane. Do not forget to include the
states of matter of the reactants and the products. Hint: Methane is a gas at
standard temperature and pressure

edliu95 · Answer

Ok, let's see here, methane gas has a chemical structure of CH4, combustion reactions require oxygen (O2) in order for the reaction to occur, what products do you think it'll yield based on the reaction. Once you have determined the possible products, find out how many of each atom you'll need to get to the products. Remember the reaction has to balance out, meaning that the amount of atoms of an element on one side of an equation must equal the amount of atoms on the other side.