Chem 1010 Signature Assignment

Precision. So many things in life must be executed correctly. If you aren’t precise
on a math question, you’ll get it wrong. If you don’t have enough money in your
account to pay bills, your payments will be late. These are a couple examples of things
that are quantitive and fulfill certain requirements in order to go through with getting
that extra point on a math test or having enough to pay bills on time.

Well the same can be said about chemical reactions. Matter is not infinite. There
are specific amounts of elements and chemicals, and they need to have enough of
another element or chemical in order to go through with their goal- Reaching the
lowest energy at rest.

Take water for example. We all know the chemical formula for water, don’t we?
H2O. But what does it mean? Well, it means that there are two atoms of hydrogen and
one atom of oxygen. They come together, and that forms the molecule known as water.

I hear you thinking, “So two H atoms + one O atom -> H2O. Your point?” Well,
my point is that the reaction doesn’t happen like that.

You see, there exists elements that are diatomic. This means that they naturally
aren’t found by themselves. They exist in nature as two atoms. Oxygen is one of those
elements. Therefore, it’s actually H2 + O2 -> H2O.

“But wait, that doesn’t add up! It says there needs to be two moles of oxygen
with two moles hydrogen, but I only see one mole of oxygen at the end of the
reaction!” Why, that’s correct! That math doesn’t add up! How observant of you.

What would need to happen next would be to double the amount of oxygen in
the molecule. But you can’t write it as H2O2, otherwise that would be a different
molecule all together. Instead, the molecule needs a number in front. This implies that
there are that number of moles produced. So it would be written as 2H2O.

Hold up! How the molecule says we end up with four hydrogen, but our H2 + O2
-> 2H2O equation says we start with only two hydrogen! Then we do the same thing
that we did to the end resulting molecule. We add the number in front to indicate how
many moles of diatomic hydrogen we have.

 Now our equation should look like this-

2H2 + O2 -> 2H2O.

Does it look balanced? Is there the correct amount of each element in the
equation? Yes! Finally. Now we have what is known as a balanced equation. These can
sometimes become tricky with more elements or molecules reacting, but it is essential
to understanding how many moles are reacting.

What’s this? Now you’re wondering why we were talking about moles, what they
are and why I was swapping between saying both moles and atoms? I was switching
between them because, when talking about equations and chemical formulas, they are
interchangeable. Well why is that? Are they the same thing?

No. Actually, moles are a measurement. Though not necessarily a measurement

of atoms. A mole is 6.022x10^23 of anything. This number is called Avogadro’s
Number. So if someone were to have 6.022x10^23 strands of hair, they would have a
mole of hair.

And the Periodic Table is also sorted by atomic weight and, believe it or not, that
weight for each element equals the weight of one mole of that element. So one actually
6.022x10^23 molecules of H2O is 34 grams. Crazy, right? And since a chemical
equation is a ratio, as long as you follow the ratio it doesn’t matter what unit/amount it
is. Much like with baking a cake. As long as you follow the ratios, you will make a
delicious cake. A delicious water cake.

 References

Balancing Chemical Equations - https://study.com/academy/lesson/balanced-

chemical-equation-definition-examples.html

Avogadro’s Number and How it Was Determined - https://www.scientificamerican.com/

article/how-was-avogadros-number/

The Unit of Moles and Determining Molar Weight - http://chemistry.bd.psu.edu/

jircitano/mole.html