Question

What is the balanced chemical equation for: liquid methanol $ (CH{}_3OH) $ combusted in oxygen gas to yield carbon dioxide gas and liquid water?

Answer 1

Hint: When it comes to a balanced chemical equation it means that the given equation should have the same amount of each of the atoms on both sides of the equation. We should do the following to balance the equation.
-Count the number of atoms that are present for each of the elements on both sides.
-Add the coefficients to make an equal number of atoms on both sides.
-Continue adding the coefficients until you have the same number of atoms.

Complete answer:
The balanced equation for combustion of $ (CH{}_3OH) $ .i.e. liquid methanol gas which yields carbon dioxide gas and liquid water is given below:
 $ 2CH{}_3OH{}_{(I)} + 3O{}_{2(g)} \to 2CO{}_{2(g)} + 4H{}_2O{}_{(I)} $
When we multiply the coefficients times the subscripts for each of the elements present in each formula, we will find there are two atoms of carbon, eight atoms of hydrogen and oxygen on both sides of the equation so that we will have a balanced equation.

Additional Information:
Methyl alcohol is another name for methanol is known to be the simplest alcohol and is light, volatile, flammable, and colourless liquid having a very distinctive odour which is sweeter than ethanol. It’s known to be a polar liquid at room temperature.

Note:
Production of methanol takes place naturally in an anaerobic metabolism of various bacteria and is known to be ubiquitous in nature. Hence there is a small part of methanol vapour in the air. After some days this atmospheric methanol will be oxidized with the help of sunlight to carbon dioxide and water.