Ok, I know Stoichiometry can be tricky enough without adding an extra twist to it, but lets talk about limiting reactants. I know I know, you probably feel like our buddy Brick does but just here me out. Limiting reactants are elements or molecules that limit the amount of product that can be produced in a reaction. If that doesn’t quite make sense, let me explain it like this…

Lets say you are a luxury car manufacturer. Like, big time luxury. Like, handmade cars… leather, wood, gold trim, the works. And for the sake of argument, and this example, that at the end of production the last thing your company does is put the tires on the finished car bodies. Now the end of production would follow this reaction:

4 Tires    + Body → Car

→

So if I had 16 tires and 4 car bodies I could make…

ta-da, 4 cars.

BUT! What if my tire supplies were running low and I only had 8 tires and 4 car bodies. How many cars could I make then?

I could only make 2 cars!

The amount of tires I had, limits the amount of cars I can produce (important word). Therefore, my tires are my limiting reactant! Because they limit the amount I can produce.

Now, lets apply that same concept to a chemical reaction, using what we have learned about Stoichiometry and it should be no sweat! First, we need a balanced chemical reaction. Then we need a given. Lets do the first example from our Limiting reactants packet as our reaction.

So, if you notice, we have 2 givens. These would be the amounts we put together in a reaction… BUT! we have to figure out which one is the limiting reactant! So, first lets assume O2 is the LR and see how much product (CO2) we can produce…

So we’ll put our new information into the chart to keep track of our data. It would look something like this…

Now lets assume CS₂ is the LR and see how much product (CO₂) we can produce…

Now our chart will look something like this…

In conclusion the reactant that produces the least amount of product is the 5.55 moles of O₂! It only produced 1.85 moles of CO₂, while 2.45 moles of CS₂ produces 2.45 moles!
So O₂ is our Limiting reactant and CS₂ is our Excess Reactant!

Now, there are some further steps you’ll have to do in the packet (how much Excess Reactant was used, what amount is leftover, what are the moles of the other product) and you may have a given in grams that you’ll have to convert… but all these are things you have done before. When in doubt, read the question carefully. There are key words that will help you determine your given and what you are solving for! Good Luck!

c/o P. Troy (2nd Period)

Limiting Reagents

This is how you feel when you find out you’ll be grading your own Stoichiometry Quiz

Today we’ll be receiving our quiz grades… but more important than me grading them and handing them back, is you checking them and understanding what was right or wrong. So we’ll be grading our own quizzes today. The answers are posted on the Docs page, or by using the link below.

Stoichiometry Quiz Answers

We’ll also be starting our large packet on Limiting Reactants today. It too is posted on the Docs page.

You would really have to be a Simpson’s fan to get that reference…

Regardless, to get everyone back on track after the wacky week last week, we’ll be in the lab today doing one of Mr. Fogel’s favorite labs… the Gold & Silver Penny Lab!

We’ll be back on topic tomorrow discussing Limiting Reactants. More info to come!

The link to the quiz I gave the first three classes (and the one Mr. Fogel gave his classes) is to a quiz with a mistake on it. The mistake has been corrected (on this site) and the link is now to the correct version of the test. I’ll tweet this info as well. Sorry for the confusion.

I’ll be visiting my dentist this morning so I won’t be in my morning classes. But here’s a rundown of what is happening today.

• New Packet to Practice Stoichiometry. Yes you must label. Yes you must color code. It is due Friday.
• You will have a quiz over this stuff (Stoichiometry) Friday.
• You may work together but do your own work!
• The answers will be posted tomorrow.

Remember, there’s shortened periods today for our Ash Wednesday Mass.

This is how I feel when I try something new… this is probably how you feel looking at Stoichiometry problems…
For those of you that aren’t privileged enough to be in our class, this is the presentation of Stoichiometry.

We’re gonna push some boundaries today. Its the only way we grow. So besides the youtube video, I’m posting a flash version of the notes. I’m not sure if it will show up on the iPads but I know it works on desktops and laptops. The voicethread is still available, but my thought was that you might want to be able to see the numbers slide and appear in their specific places. Hope it works…

He’s Bear-ly Working…