Question

Explain why 2.54 g of iron does not produce 2.54 g of copper in a reaction between iron and copper sulfate solution

Answer 1

Explanations:- The balanced equation for the reaction is:

$Fe+CuSO_4\rightarrow FeSO_4+Cu$

From above reaction, there is 1:1 mol ratio between Fe and Cu. It means 1 mol of Fe will produce 1 mol of Cu.

The atomic masses of Fe and Cu are different and for this reason 2.54 g of fe does not produce 2.54 g of Cu.  

Below are the calculations that makes it more clear.

$2.54gFe(\frac{1molfe}{55.845gFe})(\frac{1molCu}{1molFe})(\frac{63.546gCu}{1molCu})$

= 2.89 g Cu

So, calculations show that 2.54 g of Fe will produce 2.89 g of Cu. The difference is just because of the difference in their atomic masses.