Hot air balloons use large propane torches to heat the air in the balloon. Unfortunately, that much flame can cause a catastrophic fire (see bottom image). Fortunately, the 11 people in this balloon survived. All hydrocarbons (like propane) produce carbon dioxide and water as the combustion products. The unbalanced combustion reaction for propane is: C 3 H 8 + O 2 --> CO 2 + H 2 O
DECOMPOSITION PICTURE Here's a fun decomposition reaction. The starting compound is ammonium dichromate. When heated, it begins to decompose into nitrogen gas, water vapor and powdered chromium (III) oxide. It looks like a volcano with ash being spread all over the place. This looks like the compound is burning, but looking at the chemical equation we see no oxygen is being consumed. So the flame it produces does not need oxygen. So you can't put out this kind of "fire" by smothering it like most fires. http://www.chemistryland.com/CHM130W/08-Equations/TypesReactions/TypesReactions.htm
Here is a chemistry example that was shown in an earlier tutorial. This is also a double-replacement reaction. Here the barium atom swaps places with the calcium atom. When that happens, we make barium sulfate which is given to patients to drink, so x-rays can see the stomach and intestines. As a kid I had to drink it, and it tasted like chalk. It was bad. They could have at least sweetened it. (roll cursor over image to see the double-replacement animation) http://www.chemistryland.com/CHM130W/08-Equations/balancing/BalancingChemEq.htm
Decomposition Single Rep Synthesis Double rep
Cl 2 + 2KBr KCl + Br 2 2Ag 2 O 4Ag + O 2 2Na + Cl 2 2NaCl PbCl 2 + Li 2 SO4 PbSO 4 + 2LiCl C 6 H 12 O 6 +6 O 2 -> 6C O 2 + 6H 2 O 1. Single 2. Decomposition 3. Synthesis 4. Double 5 Combustion
