Answer: Option (b) is the correct answer.
Explanation:
According to the law of conservation of mass, mass of reactants will be equal to the mass of products in a chemical reaction.
For example,
Here, mass of the reactants is (28.05 + 16) g/mol = 44.05 g/mol
Mass of the products is g/mol = 36 + 88 = 124 g/mol
Therefore, mass of reactants is not equal to the mass of products. Since, there are equal number of hydrogen and carbon atoms on both the sides and only the oxygen atoms needs to be balanced.
Thus, we can conclude that for the given equation only the oxygen needs to be balanced. There are equal numbers of hydrogen and carbon.