Question

What‌ ‌is‌ ‌the‌ ‌balanced‌ ‌equation‌ ‌for‌ ‌methane‌ ‌with‌ ‌oxygen?‌

Answer 1

Hint: We know that a balanced chemical equation is an equation which has the same number of individual atoms on either side of the equation. The total mass of the reactants of a balanced equation is equal to the total mass of the products.

Complete answer:
A chemical equation is a symbolic representation of the elements of the compound taking part in a reaction. The substances on the right hand side of the equation are called the products of the reaction. This is also related to the mass of the molecules as the total mass of the reactants must be equal to the total mass of the products.
Now a chemical equation is said to be balanced when the number of atoms of the molecules involved in both sides of the equation are equal. The substances which are present on the left hand side of the equation are called reactants or substrates. This equilibration of mass is also referred to as the law of conservation of mass. The reactants of the given reaction are methane and oxygen. The products of the given reaction are carbon dioxide and water.
\[C{{H}_{4}}_{(g)}+{{O}_{2}}_{(g)}\to C{{O}_{2}}_{(g)}+{{H}_{2}}{{O}_{(g)}}\]
Looking at the equation reveals that the number of carbon is the same on both sides of the equation. But the number of oxygen and hydrogen are not the same. Thus multiplying the number of moles of oxygen and water by a factor, gives the required balanced chemical equation. The equation is written as
\[C{{H}_{4}}_{(g)}+2{{O}_{2}}_{(g)}\to C{{O}_{2}}_{(g)}+2{{H}_{2}}{{O}_{(g)}}\]

Note:
Remember that we have solved this problem by calculating weights of the reactant and products on the basis of the given reaction. In this reaction we can see that one mole of methane reacts with two moles of oxygen, one mole of carbon dioxide and two moles of water.