Final answer:
To combust 9340 liters of acetylene gas, a total volume of approximately 23,350 liters of oxygen is needed according to the reaction ratio in the balanced chemical equation. This volume equates to about 3.34 oxygen tanks, each providing 7000 liters, so one would need 4 whole tanks of oxygen to ensure complete combustion of the acetylene.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine how many tanks of oxygen will be needed to burn the acetylene in an oxyacetylene welding torch, you have to look at the balanced chemical equation for the combustion of acetylene:
2 C₂H₂ + 5 O₂ → 4 CO₂ + 2 H₂O
This equation tells us that 2 volumes of acetylene gas require 5 volumes of oxygen to burn completely. Referring to the prompt, we have 9340 liters of acetylene gas at our disposal. Since the reaction ratio is 2:5, for every 2 liters of acetylene, we need 5 liters of oxygen.
Thus, for 9340 L of C₂H₂, we would need:
- 9340 L of C₂H₂ × (5 L of O₂ / 2 L of C₂H₂) = 23,350 L of O₂
Given that each oxygen tank provides 7000 L of O₂, the number of tanks required is:
- 23,350 L of O₂ / 7000 L per tank = approximately 3.34 tanks
Since you can't have a fraction of a tank, you would need 4 tanks of oxygen to ensure you have enough to combust all of the acetylene, given that oxygen is only supplied in whole tanks.