Answer: There are 8atoms of carbon, 26atoms of oxygen and 20atoms of hydrogen at both sides of the equation.
Explanation:
The chemical equation 2C4H10 + 13O2 → 8CO2 + 10H2O is balanced because there are 8atoms of carbon, 26atoms of oxygen and 20atoms of hydrogen at both sides of the equation.
If we look at the reactants, you will see we have 2moles of butane and butane contains 4atoms of carbon and 10 moles of hydrogen.
To get the total moles of each element, we will multiple 2moles of that compound (butane) by each elements present in butane i.e hydrogen and carbon to make hydrogen (2×10)moles i.e 20moles and carbon (2×4)moles i.e 8moles.
Similarly for oxygen, we have 13moles of oxygen atom to make(2×13)moles i.e 26moles.
Note that for a chemical equation to be balanced, the number of moles of each elements at both sides must be the same.
