Question in the description, can you please explain how you got the answer

Question

1. During cellular respiration, the combustion of glucose (C₆H₁₂O₆) and oxygen gas yields carbon dioxide and water (and energy for the body to use).

A. Write the equation for this reaction and balance it.

B. How many grams of carbon dioxide are produced from 5.3 moles of glucose?

C. How many grams of oxygen are required for this reaction to take place?

Answer 1

The word "yield" is synonymous with "make" in chemical reactions. Combustion is a specific type of way of saying "reaction." So if we read back with the new words it should read "the reaction of glucose and oxygen makes carbon dioxide and water."

So we write the starting compounds on the left (reactants) and what we make on the right (products):

C6H12O6 + O2 --> CO2 + H2O

Now we have to balance the equation. Since I have six carbon atoms in glucose and the only product that contains carbon is carbon dioxide:

C6H12O6 + O2 --> 6CO2 + H2O

Likewise since I have 12 hydrogen atoms in glucose and the only product that contains hydrogen is water:

C6H12O6 + O2 ---> 6CO2 + 6H2O

Now to balance the Oxygen. Since I have 8 oxygen atoms on the left and 18 on the right I need the following equation to solve the stoichiometric value on the O2 reactant:

6 + 2x = 12 + 6

2x = 12

x = 6

This means my final equation is:

C6H12O6 + 6O2 --> 6CO2 + 6H2O

b) Now that stiochiometry of the reaction has been solved, we can solve the reaction questions.

Since we start with 5.3 mol C6H12O2 (glucose) and we know it takes one mole glucose to make 6 moles of carbon dioxide (CO2) we have the following:

5.3 mol C6H12O2 x 6 mol CO2 / 1 mol C6H12O2 = 31.8 mol CO2

Since the question asks to find the number of grams of CO2, we use the molar mass of CO2 (~44 g per mol) to solve:

31.8 mol CO2 x 44 g CO2 / 1 mol CO2 = 1399.2 grams CO2 produced

c) Again, Since we start with 5.3 mol C6H12O2 (glucose) and we know it takes one mole glucose to make 6 moles of oxygen gas (O2) we have the following:

5.3 mol C6H12O2 x 6 mol O2 / 1 mol C6H12O2 = 31.8 mol O2

Since the question asks to find the number of grams of O2, we use the molar mass of O2 (~32 g per mol) to solve:

31.8 mol CO2 x 44 g CO2 / 1 mol CO2 = 1017.6 grams O2 used