What happens when 3 molecules of hydrogen chemically react with 3 molecules of oxygen?
Answer (2)
When 3 molecules of hydrogen react with 3 molecules of oxygen, they produce 3 molecules of water. This reaction can be represented by the balanced equation 2H₂ + O₂ → 2H₂O. The reaction is exothermic and releases energy.
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When 3 molecules of hydrogen (H₂) chemically react with 3 molecules of oxygen (O₂), the reaction doesn't proceed as directly as it might seem.
In reality, the classic chemical reaction involving hydrogen and oxygen is the formation of water (H₂O). However, to form water, the reaction should be balanced in terms of the chemical equation. The balanced equation for the formation of water from hydrogen and oxygen is:
2 H 2 + O 2 → 2 H 2 O
This means that 2 molecules of hydrogen react with 1 molecule of oxygen to produce 2 molecules of water.
If you start with 3 molecules of each, first consider converting it to a balanced reaction. Since the balanced representation requires 2 hydrogen molecules for every 1 oxygen molecule, you can see that if you have 3 molecules of each:
You can only fully react 2 of the 3 molecules of hydrogen with 1 of the 3 available molecules of oxygen.
This reaction will produce 2 molecules of water (since 2 H₂ and 1 O₂ form 2 H₂O).
After this reaction, you will be left with 1 molecule of hydrogen and 2 molecules of oxygen unreacted.
This understanding is important in Chemistry as it demonstrates the concept of the limiting reactant, which shows that reactions require precise proportions of reactants to fully proceed.
