[thrrr]

Hello, sorry if this is too basic or anything, I'm only just starting off with whatever my country's equivalent of High School Chemistry is.

So there was a question where I had to write out potassium+water as a chemical equation. So I did:

2K + H₂O K₂O + H₂

But the answer was:

2K + 2H₂O 2KOH + H₂

I asked my sister about this, and she said potassium oxide doesn't exist. But I googled it and it does. So why doesn't this reaction give potassium oxide?

Thanks.

[Vidya]

K2O exists as solid only
If you put it in water it reacts immediately with water to give KOH because it is a strong basic oxide.

[AWK]

Most chemistry textbooks treat water as a natural reaction environment (implicitly excess of water). And then the second reaction is correct.
However, from both a chemistry and stoichiometry point of view, both reactions are possible.
Depending on the precision of the question, one or both equations are the correct answer.

[Fudjsk]

Water in other terms can be Hydrogen Hydroxide so...

2K + 2H(OH) yields 2K(OH) + H₂

[AWK]

Water in other terms can be Hydrogen Hydroxide so...

2K + 2H(OH) yields 2K(OH) + H₂

Brackets are not needed.

In addition, this reaction is in the post of Thrrr

[DrCMS]

As AWK has said when potassium reacts in water the final product is potassium hydroxide.

Your initial reaction is only the 1st step of this
2K + H₂O K₂O + H₂

the 2nd step is
K₂O + H₂O 2KOH

combined this gives:
2K + 2H₂O 2KOH + H₂

Given that an excess of water is always used when reacting with potassium (or other group 1 metals) the final reaction describes what is happening more completely.