Academic Integrity: tutoring, explanations, and feedback — we don’t complete graded work or submit on a student’s behalf.

IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THE ANSWER FROM YAHOO ANSWERS, I WILL NOT RATE AND I WILL

ID: 815308 • Letter: I

Question

IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THE ANSWER FROM YAHOO ANSWERS, I WILL NOT RATE AND I WILL ALSO REPORT FOR NON-ORIGINAL WORK. Please stop copy and pasting Yahoo! Answers, it is wrong, that is why I am posting this ? on here.

A fuel oil is composed of C10H22 and C12H26 in an unknown ratio (Note, there are no other significant components in the fuel oil). When the fuel oil is burned with 20% excess air the exhaust is tested and the ratio of water to CO2 is found to be 1.088. Please note that the reaction proceeds to 100% completion (i.e. there is no detectable unburned fuel oil or carbon monoxide).   Determine the composition of the fuel oil.

Explanation / Answer

The answer is following:-

2 C10H22 + 31 O2 ? 20 CO2 + 22 H2O
Molar ratio of H2O to CO2: 22/20 = 1.10000

2 C12H26 + 37 O2 ? 24 CO2 + 26 H2O
Molar ratio of H2O to CO2: 26/24 = 1.08333

Let x be the fraction of fuel oil that is C10H22.
Then 1-x is the fraction of fuel oil that is C12H26.

(22/20) x + (26/24) (1-x) = 1.088
Solve for x algebraically:
x = 0.28 = 28%
So the fuel oil is 28% C10H22 and 72% C12H26.