What proportions do they use to fill up the balloon? oxygen/acytelene do they use in this video? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-k-WXsado8s

Question

I mean, for such an explosion, do you need more oxygen than acytelene or vice versa?

Answer 1

Hi Peter D.,

Please check the Wyzant database for another recent question relating to the combustion of acetylene. However, it may be difficult to find, since that student misspelled "acetylene" and also "oxygen" (try "oxygene"). So look for "explosion", perhaps.

A word to the wise: if you don't take the trouble to spell search terms correctly, you are unable to fully access many databases! Google will auto-correct some simple stuff, but not everything. Also, if your teachers are scanning Wyzant (and I wouldn't put it past them!), they'll find that you've been careless (at best), and that can't have a good result for you. Just sayin'.

-- Cheers, -- Mr. d.

Answer 2

My understanding from combustion reactions is that you always assumed you had an excess of oxygen. Into the real world, in this experiment, I can't exactly tell how they're mixing the two gases before pumping them into the balloon, but it's probably safe to say that there isn't an actual excess of oxygen here if they're supplying all the gases involved. My guess is that they would supply a mixture that was measured by volume/mass to have somewhat more oxygen than acetylene (according to the molar ratios in the balanced chemical equation), but there's no reason why they couldn't supply the exact molar ratio of the two so they are accurately balanced.

Here's a link to a lab instruction on basically this experiment in a chemistry class: https://www.flinnsci.com/api/library/Download/3afc013b5019456d8e6afe88e3877cfd

May not answer your exact question but shines a little light on this phenomenon.