These numbers give us the ratio of each reactant relative to each other. This is just as important as following the quantities in a recipe to make cupcakes. Take the below recipe for example. 3 eggs are needed when compared with 300grams of flour. If we were to increase the number of eggs to 4 we would also need to increase the amount of flour.
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8 CO + 17 H2 → C8H18 + 8 H2O
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So for this example 8 molecules of Carbon Monoxide (CO) react with 17 molecules of Hydrogen (H2) to form one molecule of Octane (C8H18) and 8 Molecules of water (H2O)
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It is important to see these as the numbers of each compound and not changing the compound itself. We are not changing the ingredient, but we are changing how many molecules of each ingredient.
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For more practice using stoichiometry log in to Bale’s Chemistry and try the problems.
