Acetylene burns in oxygen to form carbon dioxide and water. Write the skeleton equation for the reaction and balance it.

Explanation

The skeleton equation for the reaction is :
`C_(2)H_(2)+O_(2)rarrCO_(2)+H_(2)O`
The balancing is completed in the following steps :
(i) Write the oxygen in the atomic state
`C_(2)H_(2)+OrarrCO_(2)+H_(2)O`
(ii) Balance the C atoms
`C_(2)H_(2)+O rarr2CO_(2)_H_(2)O`
(iii) Balance the O atoms
`C_(2)H_(2)+5Orarr2CO_(2)+H_(2)O`
Upon checking, the H atoms are already balanced
(iv) Make the equation molecular or change O into `O_(2)`. For this multiply the equation by the factor 2
`2C_(2)H_(2)+5O_(2)rarr4CO_(2)+2H_(2)O`
The final balanced equation is :
`2C_(2)H_(2)+5O_(2)rarr4CO_(2)+2H_(2)O`.