Question

How can you identify the substance being oxidized in the following reaction:
$C{{H}_{4}}+{{O}_{2}}\to C{{O}_{2}}+{{H}_{2}}O$

Answer 1

Methane is a compound having a chemical formula $C{{H}_{4}}$ . The carbon atom is attached with four hydrogen atoms forming a tetrahedral. It has four equivalent Carbon – Hydrogen bonds. It is used in industrial chemical processes.

Complete answer:

When a hydrocarbon, that is, $(C{{H}_{4}})$ reacts with oxygen, it results in the formation of $C{{O}_{2}}$ and water, and amount of energy is released in the form of light. This reaction is also known as combustion reaction. For example, burning of wood in winter is a combustion reaction.
Now let us see the general representation of combustion reaction.
${{C}_{n}}{{H}_{2n}}+{{O}_{2}}\xrightarrow{\Delta }nC{{O}_{2}}+n{{H}_{2}}O$
Where, ${{C}_{n}}{{H}_{2n}}$ is a hydrocarbon.
When a substance is oxidized in water, it results in the formation of $C{{O}_{2}}$ and ${{H}_{2}}O$ . This is how we will get to the combustion reaction.

Additional information:
There are two types of combustion reaction:

Complete combustion reaction: When a fuel burns completely to produce carbon dioxide and heat with a sufficient supply of oxygen, it is known as complete combustion reaction.
Incomplete combustion reaction: Here, limited supply of oxygen is used when fuel burns incompletely to produce carbon monoxide.
Combustion reaction is an oxidation reaction, which cannot be proceeded in the absence of oxygen. Oxygen is very essential because it is the only gas that supports burning. It is a reaction which only occurs when a substance reacts with oxygen to release energy.

Note:

Combustion can also be defined as the burning of hydrocarbon. It requires a high temperature. These are exothermic reactions because it releases energy. The products from combustion reaction are in gaseous form.
Oxygen is very essential in the process of combustion because it supports burning.