CHEMICAL CHANGE II  Let us take another example

LIMITING REACTANT AND THEORETICAL YIELD
NOTES (Day 2)
LIMITING REACTANT AND THEORETICAL
YIELD (Analogy)
Suppose you want to make hotdog on
stick with marshmallows, and you
have the following components:
a) hotdogs (4 pieces)
b) marshmallows (10 pieces)
c) sticks (5 pieces)

A factory is making electric fans. The

company has one part making the blade
and another making frames. To make an For every hotdog on stick with
electric fan, the company needs 1 blade marshmallows, you will be needing 1
for every frame. If the company has 12 piece of hotdog, 2 marshmallows,
blades and 7 frames, how many and 1 stick.
complete electric fans can be built?
 Let us answer the above question by
illustration.
 To a make an electric fan, the
company needs 1 blade for every
How many hotdogs on stick with
frame. If the company has 12 blades
marshmallows can you make?
and 7 frames, how many complete
Among your components, what was
electric fans can be built?
consumed first?

 So, if you have 7 frames and 12

blades, how many complete electric
fans can be built?

• You made 4 hotdogs on stick with

 How many of each part will be
leftover once all the possible electric
fans have been built?
blades___________frames_________
marshmallows. This is the product
produced which is called the theoretical
yield.
• The hotdogs were consumed first. It
limits the number of products formed;
this is the limiting reactant.

1
 • The marshmallows and sticks are the
excess reactant since they were not all
consumed in the process.
Box 1:
CONTENT: unsweetened iced tea
TOTAL MASS OF CONTENT: 1000 grams
Box 2
CONTENT: Sugar
TOTAL MASS OF CONTENT: 1000 grams
 Taking in consideration all this
information, you realize that you can
approach this like a chemistry problem!
You decide to write the glass of iced tea
recipe like a chemical equation:
• Guide questions:
a) Considering ONLY the unsweetened
Iced Tea you have, how many glasses of
Iced Tea total could you make?
b) Considering ONLY the sugar you have,
how many glasses of Iced Tea total could
you prepare?
c) Considering all of your components
(both unsweetened iced tea and sugar),
how many glasses of Iced Tea could you
make in total?
d) Which is the limiting reactant?
e) Which is the excess reactant?
f) What is the theoretical yield?
 See answers in apendix A
 What exactly is a limiting reactant?
• What exactly is an excess reactant?
• What exactly is a theoretical yield?
 See answers in apendix A
 ASSESSMENT
Answer the following questions:
1. Pretend that you have a job building
tricycles. If you had 100 handle bars, 150
wheels, 250 clutch, and 75 seats how many
tricycles could you build?
A. 50 B. 75 C100 D. 125
2. Which is the limiting reactant in question
#1?
A. clutch B. handle bars C. seats
D. wheels
3. What is the theoretical yield?
A. 50 B. 75 C100 D. 125
Write a short response for no 4 and 5.
4. How would you determine the limiting
reactant?
5. How would you determine the
theoretical yield?
Note. Your teacher will check your answers.
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 Prepared by: Appendix A
Making Iced Tea p. 5
• Answers:
OLGA L. ASIA a) 125
SWEET ANGEL Q. MANANSALA b) 200
Tarlac National High School Annex
c) 125
d) Unsweetened Iced Tea
e) Sugar
f) 125 glasses of Iced Tea

Limiting Reactant - The reactant in a

chemical reaction that limits the amount
of product that can be formed.
• The excess reactant is the reactant in a
chemical reaction with a greater amount
than necessary to react completely with
the limiting reactant.
• The maximum amount of product that
can be produced is called the theoretical
yield.