PLease someone help me answer this question

Question

Hydrochloric acid reacts with sodium hydroxide to produce sodium chloride and water.

If 5.74 g of hydrochloric acid reacts with 5.72 g of sodium hydroxide and 3.96 g of sodium chloride was produced, how much water produced?

Answer 1

The balanced reaction is NaOH + HCl -------> NaCl + H2O.

For every mole of NaCl produced, a mole of H2O is produced. If we can determine the number of moles of NaCl produced, we can calculate how many moles of H2O produced.

The molar mass of NaCl is approximately 58.5 g/mole. Moles NaCl = 3.96 g NaCl / 58.5 g/mole = 0.0677 moles, so that means that 0.0677 moles of H2O was produced. The mass of H2O produced is obtained by

18 g H2O / mole x 0.0677 mole H2O = 1.22 g water produced.

Note that I used approximations for molecular/formula masses. If your answer needs to be more accurate, repeat the steps with more accurate values.

I should mention that there is another approach to this problem which you might be taught in school.