Question

Natural gas or methane is a fossil fuel. In a plentiful supply of air, it burns to give carbon dioxide and water. Write a balanced equation to show this.

Answer 1

`CH_4 + 2O_2 --> CO_2 + 2H_2O`

Step-by-step explanation:

The chemical formula for methane is
`CH_4`

The chemical formula for oxygen is
`O_2`

The chemical formula for carbon dioxide is
`CO_2`

The chemical formula for water is
`H_2O`

Methane burns in oxygen to give carbon dioxide and water:

`CH_4 + O_2 --> CO_2 + H_2O`

The balanced equation that will ensure an equal number of each atom on the left and right-hand sides of the equation would be:

`CH_4 + 2O_2 --> CO_2 + 2H_2O`