How many moles of CaCl2 will be produced from 1.4 moles of HCl reacting with cslcum hydroxide

Answer 1

Hi Erica! This question relates to balancing cheimcal equations and stoichiometry, and I'd be happy to help you out! Here is how you would work through this problem:

The balanced chemical equation here would be: 2 HCl + Ca(OH)₂ ----> CaCl₂ + 2 H₂O

From the balanced equation, we can see that for every 2 moles of HCl, one mole of CaCl₂ is produced. So from here, we can create a simple equation that converts moles of HCl reacted to moles of CaCl₂ produced:

1.4 moles HCl * (1 mole CaCl₂ / 2 moles HCl) = 0.7 moles CaCl₂

What we're doing in the above equation is taking the given amount of HCl and multiplying it by the mole ratio between HCl and CaCl₂ (which in this case is 1:2). A trick to these questions is that you can see that units of "moles HCl" cancels out in the numerator and denominator, leaving just "moles CaCl₂"!

Hope this helps!