in the equation 2H2 + 1O2 = 2H2O if you change the 2H2 to 3H2 molecules and balance the equation identify which statement is correct

1 answer

When balancing the equation \(3H_2 + 1O_2 = 2H_2O\), we can start by assessing the number of hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms on each side of the equation.

Original Equation:

\[ 2H_2 + 1O_2 = 2H_2O \]

Balanced Equation with \(3H_2\):

\[ 3H_2 + O_2 \rightarrow 3H_2O \]

Count of Atoms:

  • Reactants:

    • Hydrogen (H): \(3 \times 2 = 6\) atoms
    • Oxygen (O): \(1 \times 2 = 2\) atoms
  • Products:

    • Hydrogen (H): \(3 \times 2 = 6\) atoms
    • Oxygen (O): \(3 \times 1 = 3\) atoms

Now let's see if it's balanced:

  1. Hydrogen: 6 in reactants, 6 in products (balanced)
  2. Oxygen: 2 in reactants, 3 in products (not balanced)

Balancing Oxygen:

To balance the oxygen in the updated equation \(3H_2 + O_2 \rightarrow 3H_2O\), we need to adjust the amount of \(O_2\) or the number of water molecules produced.

We realize that with \(3H_2\) creating \(3H_2O\), we actually need: \[ 3H_2 + \frac{3}{2}O_2 \rightarrow 3H_2O \] Or we can change it to a whole number format: \[ 2H_2 + 1O_2 \rightarrow 2H_2O \] (original equation)

The correct reformulation looks something like this if we want to scale: \[ 4H_2 + 2O_2 \rightarrow 4H_2O \] or \[ 6H_2 + 3O_2 \rightarrow 6H_2O \]

Conclusion:

If you change \(2H_2\) to \(3H_2\), the statement is:

  • This statement is incorrect without proper adjustments. You need to adjust the coefficient for \(O_2\) as well to properly balance the equation.

The correct statement would be that when changing \(2H_2\) to \(3H_2\), both the amounts of oxygen and water produced must also be modified to achieve a balanced chemical reaction.