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Question:

Can you please help me balance this equation?!?

I suck at this!CuCl2 + H2O + Al -gt; H2 + AlCl3 + CuOAnd please explain what this means!I know it has to do with Copper Chloride,Water, and Aluminum

Answer:

Please recognize first that this is an oxidation-reduction (redox) reactionTherefore, something gets oxidized, and something gets reducedWe must identify those first and write their half reactionsH2O + 2e- - H2 +1 0 The hydrogen in water is reduced to elemental hydrogen gas, resulting in a gain of 2 electrons and a reduction of +2 in oxidation state (one per hydrogen)Al - AlCl3 0 +3 Metallic (oxst0) aluminum gets oxidized to +3 in AlCl3, resulting in a loss of 3 electrons We must make the electron transfer equal so electrons are conserved (no excess gain or loss)In order to balance them out, we must multiply the H2's by 3 and the Al's by 2Let's see where that leaves the chemical equation at the moment: CuCl2 + 3H2O and 2Al - 3H2 + 2AlCl3 + CuO This should result in 6 electrons gained and lost; therefore conservedThe reaction however is not yet balanced, as the Cl atoms are not conservedLet's multiply the CuCl2 term by 3 (as well as the CuO term to keep the Cu's in balance)3CuCl2 + 3H2O and 2Al - 3H2 + 2AlCl3 + 3CuO A quick inspection leads us to think that our reaction is now balanced However, in order to complete our redox balance we must check TWO THINGS: 1Mass balance 2Charge balance Mass balance is what we have been doing; making sure there are the same number of atoms of each side of the reactionLet's be sure that is the case: 3 Cu on both sides 6 Cl on both sides (3 Cl2 vs2Cl3; OK) 6 H on both sides 3 O on both sides 2 Al on both sides Mass balance is correctWe must also see that the net CHARGE on both sides is the same(Does not have to be zero!) We are lucky here that we have no ions, no charged speciesSo the charge on both sides is zero (OK)We're finished.
1) Energy 246 kJ Time 2 minutes 120 seconds Power energy/time 246 kJ/120 s 2.05 kW 2) v 22 ms-1 F 123 kN Power F v 123 kN x 22 ms-1 2706 kW 3) Power change in potential energy/time mgh/t 800 x 9.8 x 21/6 27440 W 27.44 kW .

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