"Published in Newark, California, USA"
Four liters of octane gasoline weigh 3.19 kg. Calculate the volume of air required for its complete combustion at STP.
Solution:
The first thing that we have to do is to write the chemical equation for the combustion of octane gasoline as follows
Make sure that the above chemical equation is balanced. Next, we will calculate the molecular weight of octane gasoline as follows
Moles of octane gasoline:
From the chemical equation above, moles of oxygen is
At STP (Standard Temperature and Pressure), 1 mole of any gas is equal to 22.4 liters. Hence, the volume of oxygen is
Since air contains 21% oxygen and 79% nitrogen, therefore, the volume of air required for the complete combustion of octane gasoline is