Question

Nitroglycerin is a dangerous powerful explosive that violently decomposes when it is shaken or dropped. The Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) founded the Nobel Prizes with a fortune he made by inventing dynamite, a mixture of nitroglycerin and inert ingredients that was safe to handle. 1. Write a balanced chemical equation, including physical state symbols, for the decomposition of liquid nitroglycerin ( C 3 H 5 NO 3 3 ) into gaseous dinitrogen, gaseous dioxygen, gaseous water and gaseous carbon dioxide. 2. Suppose 69.0 L of carbon dioxide gas are produced by this reaction, at a temperature of − 5.0 °C and pressure of exactly 1 atm . Calculate the mass of nitroglycerin that must have reacted. Be sure your answer has the correct number of significant digits.

Answer 1