Question

How many atoms of carbon are represented in 3CH3CH2O? 2 4 6 8

Answer 1

Answer: 6

Explanation:

1) The structure shown is:

3CH₃CH₂O

2) The molecule is CH₃CH₂O. The chemical formula is CH₃CH₂O. The subscripts indicate the number of atoms of the corresponding atom in each molecule.

Then, there are 1 + 1 = 2 atoms of C, 3+ 2 = 5 atoms of H, and 1 atom of O.

3) The number in front of the molecule is the coefficient. It is 3, and it tells the number of molecules.

So, there are 3 molecules, which means that you have 3 times a many atoms as calculated previously.

That is 3×2 = 6 atoms of C, 3 × 5 = 15 atoms of H, and 3 × 1 = 3 atoms of O.

Then, the number of atoms of carbon (C) in 3 molecules is 6