Continuation of previous example: we have a 0. 2000g sample made up of only c,h, and o. Combustion analysis yields . 2000 g h2o and . 4880g co2. Just need an estimate of the true molar mass. Example: we determined that the empirical formula for vitamin c is c3h4o3. The only useful chemical equation is a abalanced equation@, i. e. one which has the correct coefficients for all reactants and products. One important concept in balancing equations is the conservation of mass: atoms are neither created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction. Reactants are on the left, products are on the right. Equations are generally written with smallest set of whole-number coefficients. States are often indicated by (s), (l), (g), (aq) for solid, liquid, gas, and aqueous respectively. When balancing only the coefficients may be adjusted. Consider e. g. the combustion of gasoline,c3h8 (g) in oxygen to yield co2 (g) and h2o (l).
