Question

Gasoline is a mixture of hydrocarbons of various chain lengths, ranging from 5-carbon chains to 10-carbon chains. One of the hydrocarbons we often hear about is the 8-carbon chain, octane. Octane combusts with oxygen as given by the balanced equation:

2C8H18(g) + 25O2(g) → 16CO2(g) + 18H2O(g)

Recall that you cannot infer the reaction pathway from the balanced equation. It must be derived experimentally. Yet upon reading this balanced equation, it appears unlikely that the combustion of octane occurs in a single step. Why?

Answer 1

One molecule of octane must react with 12.5 molecules of oxygen and that is unlikely to occur in one step.
Unimolecular equation are common, bimolecular reactions are fairly common and there are a few termolecular reactions that occur. But it is not likely that 1 molecule of octane and 12+ molecules of oxygen will bump into each other at the same exact instant to cause a reaction. Therefore, it must go through several steps.

Answer 2

good gotas our the come to be man