Question

Combustion of hydrocarbons such as butane (C4H10) produces carbon dioxide, a "greenhouse gas." Greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere can trap the Sun's heat, raising the average temperature of the Earth. For this reason, there has been a great deal of international discussion about whether to regulate the production of carbon dioxide.
Write a balanced chemical equation, including physical state symbols, for the combustion of gaseous butane into gaseous carbon dioxide and gaseous water.

Answer 1

Answer: $2C_4H_{10}(g)+13O_2(g)\rightarrow 8CO_2(g)+10H_2O(g)$

Explanation

Combustion is a chemical reaction in which hydrocarbons are burnt in the presence of oxygen to give carbon dioxide and water.

According to the law of conservation of mass, mass can neither be created nor be destroyed. Thus the mass of products has to be equal to the mass of reactants. The number of atoms of each element has to be same on reactant and product side. Thus chemical equations are balanced.

The balanced combustion reaction for butane is,:

$2C_4H_{10}(g)+13O_2(g)\rightarrow 8CO_2(g)+10H_2O(g)$