Question

Please could you help me predict the products of the following reactions: ( I cant figure them out) THANX in advance!

1) CaO powder is added to distilled water.
2) Acetic acid solution is added to solid sodium hydrogen
carbonate.
3) Potassium permanganate solution is added to acidified
oxalic acid solution.
4) A piece of metallic aluminium is dropped into a solution of copper (II) chloride.

Answer 1

Here are some rules that helped me as I went through school. None of the equations are balanced. These look better if you place them on a sheet of paper with arrows but I can't do that on this forum. Something like this:
.................Elements.............
...............|.........|
..........metals.......non-metals
..........+.............+...........
..........O2............O2
..........|.............|(arrows here)
..........v.............v
........metal oxide...non-metal oxide
..........+.............+
.........H2O...........H2O
..........|.............|
..........v.............v
..........base..........acid

Then draw arrows from one to the other to show these reactions.
acid + base ==> salt + water
example: HCl + NaOH ==> NaCl + H2O

metal oxide + acid ==> salt + water
example: CaO + HCl ==> CaCl2 + H2O

non-metal oxide + base ==> salt + water
example: CO2 + NaOH ==> Na2CO3 + H2O

metal oxide + non-metal oxide ==> salt
example: CaO + CO2 ==> CaCO3

Here are example of each of the ones in the above table.
metal + oxygen = metallic oxide
example: Al + O2 ==> Al2O3

non-metal + oxygen = non-metal oxide
example: C + O2 ==> CO2

metal oxide + H2O = base
example: Na2O + H2O ==> NaOH

non-metal oxide + H2O = acid
example: SO3 + H2O ==> H2SO4

Answer 2

For #2, carbonates and bicarbonates go to CO2 and H2O in acid soln.

MnO4^- in acidified soln goes to Mn^2+. C2O4^= goes to CO2 in acid soln.

For #4, a metal will displace any ion BELOW it in the activity series. Therefore, Al will go into soln and Cu^2+ will come out. Here is a site that gives the activity series.
http://www.files.chem.vt.edu/RVGS/ACT/notes/activity_series.html

Answer 3

Thank you very much