Hi, I'm new to the forums.. and to Chemistry (let's just say I went back to school for a change in career) I'm sure I'll visit often as I'm planning on taking a lot of Chem courses
Anyway, I'm a little lost on the concept of moles and limiting reagents... I know how to do the calculations, but some of the problems I'm not sure why this was the limiting reagent, etc.
Example, XX + YY --> ZZ
Now we add .007 L of XX with a molarity of 4.11
Mix with .005 L of water, and .009 L of YY with a molarity of 5.14
Density for all is 1g/ml
First thing I do is solve for the mols for XX, YY and water
mol XX = .007L(4.11) = .0288 mol XX
mol YY = .005L(5.14) = .0463 mol YY
mol water = 5g/18g = .278 mol water
So anyway I guessed that the limiting reagent was XX, since I just took the smallest mole value (the answer is right). But, I want to know why is it so? Searched here, and found something on molar ratio.. but in this equation, it doesn't say.. or is it assumed that the molar ratio is 1:1? I appreciate it if someone would explain it to me (in layman's terms even better
)
Tia!