__Combustion__

Combustion
A combustion reaction is when an element combines with an oxidizing element and the reaction creates oxidized products such as water or Carbon dioxide.

The generic form of this reaction: A+O2--->A2O+CO2

An example of this reaction is when methane and oxygen gas react to produce Carbon dioxide and water. Now we have to convert this sentence into an equation: Methane=CH4 Oxygen is a diatomic and therefore can't stand alone so it's O2 So the first part of the equation is CH4+O2--->? Carbon dioxide is 1 carbon and 2 oxygens-CO2 Water is has 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen-H2O CH4+O2---> CO2+H2O what do we have to do now?? BALANCE!! On the reactant side we have 2 oxygen and 4 hydrogen atoms and on the product side 3 oxygen and 2 hydrogen...so we add coefficients: CH4+2O2--->CO2+2H2O Now it's all balanced.

A picture of a Combustion reaction:



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