The strong Base with a pH of 12 is reduced by 4 units upon being added with solution Y. If you added a strong acid to the strong base, all ions are present in the solution, yes? So every OH- is neutralised by every H+ for example, meaning the resultant pH should be 7. The resultant pH is only 8 however, so solution Y must be a <em>weak acid </em>only!
There should be mass balance and the charge balance between the reactants and the products
Mass balance : total no of individual atoms of each type should be balanced before and after the reaction
Charge balance : Overall charge of the reactants should be balanced with the overall charge of the products
You can balance,
1)by just looking at it
2)by Algebraic method given above or
3)by the redox method
You need to know how to get the oxidation numbers in order to use the oxidation method
Option B is correct,
With increase in concentration the density of reactants increases and the system becomes more crowded, the greater the reactants will come in contact with each other and collisions occur. If collision is in proper orientation and has optimum energy then its fruitful and yields product. So, the greater the number of reactants, the greater will be the chances of collision and the greater will be the production of products per unit time and hence, greater is the rate of reaction.