D- Reacting masses

Help

These kind of questions further test your understanding of how atoms combine and there are
two methods for getting the answers to these problems. One involves calculating the moles of
each chemical, looking at the equation and deducing the answer. The second method, used
below, relies on scaling the ‘reacting masses’. The reacting masses are just the sum of all the
atomic masses of the atoms for each chemical multiplied by how much of the compound
there is.
Worked answers to questions on self assessment sheet

6(a) First of all, write out the equation then work out the reacting masses

2Mg + O2  2MgO
2 x 24.3 16 x 2 2x (24.3 + 16)
48.6 32 80.6
This tells us that 48.6g of magnesium reacts to form 80.6g of magnesium oxide. We want to
know how much magnesium oxide is formed from 6g of magnesium. To do this we need to
scale the values. If we divide through by 48.6 we find out what 1g of magnesium will
produce:

2Mg + O2  2MgO
1 0.6584… 1.6584…
We can then scale up for 6g by multiplying all the values by 6.

2Mg + O2  2MgO
6 3.95 9.95
The answer to the question is 9.95g

6(b) The method is the same in this question but we are interested in the oxygen not the
magnesium oxide and we are using 12g of magnesium. First divide through by 48.6 to find
out what one gram of magnesium would do and then multiply through by 12 to see what 12g
will do.

2Mg + O2  2MgO
48.6 32 80.6
1 0.6584… 1.6584…
12 7.9
The answer is 7.9g
You may wish to discuss an alternative method with your teacher.

Further questions

For the following equations work out:

(a) what mass of product will form if 15g of the metal is used
(b) how many grams of the non-metal are needed to react exactly with 5g of the metal.
1. Fe + Cl2  FeCl2
Answers
2. 2Fe + O2  2FeO
3. 4Al + 3O2  2Al2O3 1. (a) 34.1g (b) 6.36g
2. (a) 19.3g (b) 1.43g
3. (a) 28.3g (b) 4.44g

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