According to the law of conservation of matter, the total number of atoms before and after a chemical reaction must remain the same.
In your scenario:
- You start with 10 atoms of carbon (C) and 20 atoms of oxygen (O).
- When these react to form carbon dioxide (CO₂), each molecule of carbon dioxide contains 1 carbon atom and 2 oxygen atoms.
The balanced chemical equation for the reaction is:
\[ \text{C} + \text{O}_2 \rightarrow \text{CO}_2 \]
Now, let’s calculate the total number of atoms before the reaction:
- Total atoms before the reaction = Atoms of Carbon + Atoms of Oxygen
- Total atoms before the reaction = 10 (C) + 20 (O) = 30 atoms
After the reaction, the carbon dioxide molecules can be calculated:
- Each CO₂ molecule contains 1 carbon and 2 oxygen atoms.
- Maximum amount of CO₂ that can be formed from 10 carbon atoms and 20 oxygen atoms would be 10 molecules of CO₂:
- This uses 10 carbon atoms (10 C) and 20 oxygen atoms (10 x 2 O).
Therefore, the reaction will yield 10 CO₂ molecules.
Now, let's count atoms after the reaction:
- Each CO₂ molecule has 1 carbon atom and 2 oxygen atoms:
- For 10 CO₂: \(10 \text{ C} + 20 \text{ O} = 30\) atoms.
Thus, the total number of atoms remains the same:
- Total atoms after the reaction = 10 (C) + 20 (O) = 30 atoms.
In summary, there are 30 atoms present in this reaction, both before and after according to the law of conservation of matter.
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