Gaseous methane will react with gaseous oxygen to produce gaseous carbon dioxide and gaseous water . Suppose 9.6 g of methane is mixed with 64.9 g of oxygen. Calculate the maximum mass of water that could be produced by the chemical reaction. Round your answer to significant digits.

21.6 g

Explanation:

The reaction that takes place is:

First we convert the given masses of both reactants into moles, using their respective molar masses:

0.6 moles of CH₄ would react completely with (2 * 0.6) 1.2 moles of O₂. As there are more O₂ moles than required, O₂ is the reactant in excess and CH₄ is the limiting reactant.

Now we calculate how many moles of water are produced, using the number of moles of the limiting reactant:

Finally we convert 1.2 moles of water into grams, using its molar mass: