Complete the following combustion reaction.

C₈H₁₈ + 25/2O₂ —> 8CO₂ + 9H₂O

2C₈H₁₈ + 25O₂ —> 16CO₂ + 18H₂O

Explanation:

The reaction above is simply termed combustion reaction in which an organic compound react with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and water. Thus, we can obtain the balanced equation for the reaction reaction as follow:

C₈H₁₈ + O₂ —> CO₂ + H₂O

There are 8 atoms of C on the left side and 1 atom on the right side. It can be balance by writing 8 before CO₂ as shown below:

C₈H₁₈ + O₂ —> 8CO₂ + H₂O

There are 18 atoms of H on the left side and 2 atoms on the right side. It can be balance by writing 9 before H₂O as shown below:

C₈H₁₈ + O₂ —> 8CO₂ + 9H₂O

There are 2 atoms of O on the left side and a total of 25 atoms on the right side. It can be balance by writing 25/2 before O₂ as shown below:

C₈H₁₈ + 25/2O₂ —> 8CO₂ + 9H₂O

Thus, the equation is balanced!

The above equation can also be written as follow:

C₈H₁₈ + 25/2O₂ —> 8CO₂ + 9H₂O

Multiply through by 2

2C₈H₁₈ + 25O₂ —> 16CO₂ + 18H₂O