Solid carbon is known to react with oxygen gas to produce carbon dioxide. If a mass of 1.2g of carbon is burned in oxygen, 4.4g of carbon dioxide is found to form. How many grams of oxygen gas reacted with carbon?

Now,

C + O2 → CO2

According to above equation, 1 mole of carbon reacts with one mole of oxygen to produce one mole of carbon dioxide. Thus this implies that 12 g of carbon reacts with 32 g of O2 to produce 44 g of CO2.

No of moles = mass of the substance/molecular mass of the substance.

In this case 1.2 g of carbon reacts with "x "g of O2 to produce 4.4 g of CO2.

No of moles of carbon in this case = 1.2: 12 = 0.1 moles.

No of moles of carbon dioxide formed = 4.4:44 = 0.1 moles

Thus already discussed above, 1 mole of carbon reacts with 1 mole of oxygen to produce 1 mole of carbon dioxide. Hence to produce 0.1 mole of CO2,0.1 mole of carbon needs to react with 0.1 mole of oxygen.

Also number of moles of O2 = mass of O2: molar mass of O2

Substituting number of moles of O2 as 0.1 we get

mass of O2 (x) = Number of moles of O2 * Molar mass of O2

Mass of O2 (x) = 0.1 * 32 = 3.2 g

Thus mass of 3.2 g O2 reacts with 1.2 g of CO2 to produce 4.4 g of CO2.