Balancing Equations

Are you sure you have the correct equation?  Generally when you have a hydrocarbon(plus an oxygen) in the presence of oxygen, it yields carbon dioxide and water.  I have never come across a reaction that has an aldehyde in the presence of oxygen turning into a shorter chained aldehyde and water.

I tried solving the eqn and I had a 2 in front of the first compound and a 3 in front of the third compound, and then I got stuck.

The  equation is part of a 5 mole problem from Prentice -Hall Text 'Chemistry and Life, an intro to general, organic, and biological chemistry,  Sixth Edition.  It is Ch. 4  question #54.  The actual question reads:

Acetaldehyde, CH3CHO,(d=0.788g/mL), a liquid used in the manufacture of perfumes, flavors dyes and plastics, can be produced by the reaction of ethanol with oxygen.

CH3CH2OH + O2 (yeilds) CH3CHO +H2O (all #'s are subscript)  (not balanced)

How many liters of liquid ethanol (d=0.789 g/mL) must be consumed to produce 25.0L of acetaldehyde?

Any help would be appreciated!

i see why maddy couldn't get it, you had an extra carbon in the first one

using this equation

CH3CH2OH + O2 (yeilds) CH3CHO +H2O

2 and 2

so it is balanced. some one check me here.

save O2 for last

start with C

you have 2 on left and 2 on right so that is good

then H

you have 6 on left and 6 on right so that is good

now for O2

3 on right and 2 on left so we need to use a fraction

the O2 come with 2 O and we can't do anything about that but if we take 1/2 of O2 then that will represent one O

so CH3CH2OH +  1 /2  O2 (yeilds) CH3CHO +H2O

now some teachers won't allow you to leave the fraction so you multiply everything by 2

2 CH3CH2OH +  O2 (yeilds)  2 CH3CHO + 2 H2O

Thanks!  That really made sense when you put it that way.

hey do me a favor and tell your friends OK!

Having the correct chemical equation would have been very helpful >:|