Question #7792a
1 Answer
I'll try and interpret the question correctly...
Explanation:
The first question is why nitrogen dioxide is
This comes from the nomenclature of nonmetal compounds; for binary covalent compounds such as nitrogen dioxide, they are named such that prefixes are attached to each element ( except if the first element has only
#1# of it in the compound, then no prefix is present)."Nitrogen dioxide" thus means there is one nitrogen present and two oxygen atoms (prefix "di-" indicates
#2# ), the compound formula is#"NO"_2# .
The next question, I assume, is why the formula is not something else according to the chemical reaction
Here's something worth knowing about chemistry and specifically chemical reactions: reactants can form products that have completely different characteristics than those of the reactants.
The fact that
#"N"_2# seems to lose its diatomic property is just the nature of the reaction; although#"N"_2"O"_2# is a real compound, it is far less common to hear about it or work with it.Basically, the chemical structure of
#"NO"_2# is thermodynamically more favorable than that of#"N"_2"O"_2# , and thus the reaction will, under certain conditions, yield#"NO"_2# (you'll learn more about the thermodynamics of reactions later!)
As far as balancing goes, we have so far
-
two nitrogens on the left, one on the right
-
two oxygens on the left, two on the right
Therefore, nitrogen is the only unbalanced element. To fix this, we simply add a
#color(red)(2)# in front of#"NO"_2# :
#"N"_2(g) + "O"_2(g) rarr color(red)(2)"NO"_2(g)# (unbalanced)Now you may notice that the oxygen quantities have become unbalanced, and there are
#4# on the right side and#2# on the left. A quick fix is done by placing another#color(blue)(2# in front of#"O"_2# :
#"N"_2(g) + color(blue)(2)"O"_2(g) rarr color(red)(2)"NO"_2(g)# (balanced)And our equation is balanced!
