Module 6 Intro

Module 6—Stoichiometry

Lesson Summary

 In this lesson you explored the following questions:

• What information about a chemical system is contained within a balanced chemical equation?
  
  

• What information about a chemical system is not contained within a balanced chemical equation?
  
  

• What is conservation of mass, and how is it demonstrated in a chemical equation?

You were introduced to stoichiometry, a mathematical process to determine quantities of substances involved in a chemical process. You learned that the information contained within balanced chemical equations provides information about chemical quantities, such as the number of moles of substances involved.

You discovered that the coefficients of a balanced chemical equation describe the proportions of each substance involved in the reaction, and how these proportions are an essential part of the predictions made using stoichiometry.

You learned that analyzing a system in terms of number of moles of substances does not allow you to comment on measurable quantities like mass or volume. In the lessons to come, you will extend your understanding of stoichiometry to use measurements of matter to predict the outcomes of a variety of chemical reactions.

Lesson Glossary

law of conservation of mass: a law stating that in any physical or chemical system, the initial mass of the system will be identical to the final mass of the system

mole ratio: a mathematical statement of the proportion of each substance involved in a chemical process relative to one another

net ionic equation: a type of balanced chemical equation that lists only the reacting particles

stoichiometry: a method of predicting or analyzing the quantities of the reactants and products participating in a chemical process