Stoichiometry is the relationship between the relative quantities of substances involved in a chemical

reaction, typically ratios of whole numbers. Stoichiometry is a catch all word for all of the calculations
we do to determine how much of what to mix with what.

When the space shuttle took off it used two different rocket systems. The main engines were powered
by combining oxygen and hydrogen in the highly exothermic reaction 2H2 + O2 ⇌ 2H2O The fuel was
stored in that brown tank in liquid form as liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid hydrogen (LH2). Liquids are
much more dense than gases, so storage in the liquid phase allows the shuttle to carry an immense
amount of fuel. Unfortunately, that fuel made up the majority of the weight of the shuttle at liftoff. So
most of what the shuttle engines lifted from the ground was fuel. That means it was very important not
to have too much of one or the other reactant on board. We'd want just enough hydrogen to react with
the amount of oxygen on board, and vice versa. That's where stoichiometry was essential.

Airbags (Figure 3) are a safety feature provided in most automobiles since the 1990s. The effective
operation of an airbag requires that it be rapidly inflated with an appropriate amount (volume) of gas
when the vehicle is involved in a collision. This requirement is satisfied in many automotive airbag
systems through use of explosive chemical reactions, one common choice being the decomposition of
sodium azide, NaN3. When sensors in the vehicle detect a collision, an electrical current is passed
through a carefully measured amount of NaN 3 to initiate its decomposition:

2 NaN3(s)→3 N2(g)+2 Na(s)2 NaN3(s)→3 N2(g)+2 Na(s)

This reaction is very rapid, generating gaseous nitrogen that can deploy and fully inflate a typical airbag
in a fraction of a second (~0.03–0.1 s). Among many engineering considerations, the amount of sodium
azide used must be appropriate for generating enough nitrogen gas to fully inflate the air bag and
ensure its proper function. For example, a small mass (~100 g) of NaN 3 will generate approximately 50 L
of N2.

Gas stoichiometry greatly affect the modern life. Hence, we should know and remember that in
chemistry it is very important to understand the relationship between reactants and products in a
reaction. Stoichiometry is exactly that. It is the quantitative relation between the number of moles (and
therefore mass) of various products and reactants in a chemical reaction.