Today we are learning about chemical reaction between Methane and Oxygen.
I often use thermacoal balls to explain chemistry concepts. I feel making these model while learning chemical reaction and equations brings cleared understanding of concepts.
Well all you need is few thermacoal balls and some barbecue skewers. Some color as well, if you wish to color the thermacoal balls.
Here is a sample equation and how we do it.
This model shows Methane reaction to Oxygen.
Methane (CH4) has one Carbon Atom And 4 Hydrogen Atoms.
And oxygen as it exist is made of two atoms.
So the model looks like this
Black ball is Carbon, Blue ones Hydrogen and Red one Oxygen.
After the chemical reaction happens we get two new compounds.
Carbon Dioxide and Water.
So we simply arrange the Thermacoal balls to get the new compound.
Two oxygen atom get attached to Carbon. And one Oxygen atom gets attached to two Hydrogen atoms, thus forming water compound. Finally we will have two water molecules and one Carbon Dioxide molecule.
Let me tell you that when I was in school, I hated chemistry. These chemical equations, valencies were alien concept to me. My chemistry teacher would emphasis on mugging the equations, and that’s not something I ever wanted to do. So I just let it slip by and when I had first opportunity to switch subject, I opted out of chemistry and picked up Statistics.
Now when my daughter ask me questions about why and how. I do want to figure out an easy way to understand it. I will be uploading few more blogs in this series.
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