Question

Sulfur burns in air to form sulfur dioxide in the following reaction s + O₂ → sO₂. What mass of sulfur is necessary to form 256g of sulfur dioxide?

Answer 1

To form 256g of sulfur dioxide (SO2), 8g of sulfur is necessary.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the mass of sulfur necessary to form 256g of sulfur dioxide (SO2), we need to use the stoichiometry of the reaction. In the balanced equation s + O₂ → sO₂, the coefficient in front of 's' is 1, indicating that 1 mole of sulfur reacts with 1 mole of oxygen to produce 1 mole of sulfur dioxide.

Since the molar mass of sulfur is 32.07 g/mol, we can calculate the mass of sulfur needed by setting up a proportion:

1 mol S/32.07 g S = 1 mol SO2/64.07 g SO2

Solving for the mass of sulfur, we get:

Mass of sulfur = (1 mol S/32.07 g S) * 256 g SO2 = 8 g