How is it possible that the reactants and products for both chemical equations have the same quantity of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms, yet the reactants and products are different molecules?

Yes, this may be a little confusing when taking a first glance at the chemical equation.

Explanation:

You see, the whole process of balancing an equation is to make sure the reactants and products have the same amount of mass/atoms.

With that being said, the products to appear to be different after going through the chemical change. this is because of what was happening through that process. But, all of these atoms are still within the final product.

For example, if you take water in a container, one with a lid and one without a lid, then you heat up both containers of water, the container that has the lid open will seem like the water is gone, that the atoms are not the same. Actually, if we take a look at the closed container, all of that gas that was formed from the water still has the same amount of atoms contained in it. As for the open lid container, the atoms are all there, but some of them was just released into the air outside of the jar, making it seem like there is less.

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