Answer:
About 16.1 grams of oxygen gas.
Explanation:
The reaction between magnesium and oxygen can be described by the equation:
[tex]\displaystyle 2\text{Mg} + \text{O$_2$} \longrightarrow 2\text{MgO}[/tex]
24.4 grams of Mg reacted with O₂ to produce 40.5 grams of MgO. We want to determine the mass of O₂ in the chemical change.
Compute using stoichiometry. From the equation, we know that two moles of MgO is produced from every one mole of O₂. Therefore, we can:
- Convert grams of MgO to moles of MgO.
- Moles of MgO to moles of O₂
- And moles of O₂ to grams of O₂.
The molecular weights of MgO and O₂ are 40.31 g/mol and 32.00 g/mol, respectively.
Dimensional analysis:
[tex]\displaystyle 40.5\text{ g MgO} \cdot \frac{1\text{ mol MgO}}{40.31\text{ g MgO}} \cdot \frac{1\text{ mol O$_2$}}{2\text{ mol MgO}} \cdot \frac{32.00\text{ g O$_2$}}{1\text{ mol O$_2$}} = 16.1\text{ g O$_2$}[/tex]
In conclusion, about 16.1 grams of oxygen gas was reacted.
You will obtain the same result if you compute with the 24.4 grams of Mg instead:
[tex]\displaystyle 24.4\text{ g Mg}\cdot \frac{1\text{ mol Mg}}{24.31\text{ g Mg}} \cdot \frac{1\text{ mol O$_2$}}{1\text{ mol Mg}} \cdot \frac{32.00\text{ g O$_2$}}{1\text{ mol O$_2$}} = 16.1\text{ g O$_2$}[/tex]
