Question

Equal mass of oxygen, hydrogen and methane are taken in a container with identical conditions. What is the ratio of their moles

A) 1:16:1

B) 1:16:2

C) 8:1:8

D) 16:1:8

Answer 1

Oxygen is a chemical element having symbol O and the atomic number of oxygen is 8. Hydrogen is a chemical element having symbol H and the atomic number of hydrogen is 1. Methane is a chemical compound consisting of carbon and hydrogen having a chemical formula of $C{{H}_{4}}$.

Complete answer:

To solve this question let's assume that we have 100 g of each hydrogen, methane and oxygen.

We know that the volume of a gas is directly proportional to the number of moles of the gas which means that as the volume of a gas increases the number of moles of gas also increase similarly when the volume of the gas decreases the number of moles of gas also decreases.

The molar mass of hydrogen gas is = 2 g/mol

The molar mass of oxygen is = 32 g/mol

And the molar mass of methane is = 16 g/mol

We can calculate the number of moles of hydrogen, oxygen and methane by dividing the given mass by the molar mass of each of the gases respectively.

The number of moles of hydrogen = $\dfrac{100}{2}$

The number of moles of oxygen = $\dfrac{100}{32}$

The number of moles of methane = $\dfrac{100}{16}$

So the ratio of oxygen, hydrogen and methane are taken in a container with identical conditions = $\dfrac{100}{32}:\dfrac{100}{2}:\dfrac{100}{16}$

The ratio of oxygen, hydrogen and methane are taken in a container with identical conditions = 1:16:2

Hence the correct answer is option (B).

Note:

The molar mass of methane is calculated by adding the atomic mass of hydrogen and the atomic mass of carbon. The atomic mass of carbon is 12 and the atomic mass of hydrogen is 1 and there are four hydrogen in methane, so the mass of all the 4 hydrogen in methane will be 4.

The molar of methane = $12+4=16$ g/mol