What is "stoichiometry"

Stoichiometry \Stoi`chi*om"e*try\, n. [Gr. ? a first principle, or element + -metry.] The art or process of calculating the atomic proportions, combining weights, and other numerical relations of chemical elements and their compounds.

"science of calculating the quantities of chemical elements involved in chemical reactions," 1807, from German Stöchiometrie (1792), coined by German chemist Jeremias Benjamin Richter (1762-1807) from Greek stoikheion "one of a row; shadow-line of a sundial," in plural "the elements" (from PIE *steigh- "to stride, step, rise") + -metry. Related: Stoichiometric.

n. 1 (context uncountable chemistry English) The study and calculation of quantitative (measurable) relationships of the reactants and products in chemical reactions (chemical equations). 2 (context countable chemistry English) The quantitative relationship between the reactants and products of a specific reaction or equation.

n. (chemistry) the relation between the quantities of substances that take part in a reaction or form a compound (typically a ratio of whole integers)

Stoichiometry is the calculation of relative quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions.

Stoichiometry is founded on the law of conservation of mass where the total mass of the reactants equals the total mass of the products leading to the insight that the relations among quantities of reactants and products typically form a ratio of positive integers. This means that if the amounts of the separate reactants are known, then the amount of the product can be calculated. Conversely, if one reactant has a known quantity and the quantity of product can be empirically determined, then the amount of the other reactants can also be calculated.

This is illustrated in the image here, where the balanced equation is:

+ 2 → + 2 .

Here, one molecule of methane reacts with two molecules of oxygen gas to yield one molecule of carbon dioxide and two molecules of water. Stoichiometry measures these quantitative relationships, and is used to determine the amount of products/reactants that are produced/needed in a given reaction. Describing the quantitative relationships among substances as they participate in chemical reactions is known as reaction stoichiometry. In the example above, reaction stoichiometry measures the relationship between the methane and oxygen as they react to form carbon dioxide and water.

Because of the well known relationship of moles to atomic weights, the ratios that are arrived at by stoichiometry can be used to determine quantities by weight in a reaction described by a balanced equation. This is called composition stoichiometry.

Gas stoichiometry deals with reactions involving gases, where the gases are at a known temperature, pressure, and volume and can be assumed to be ideal gases. For gases, the volume ratio is ideally the same by the ideal gas law, but the mass ratio of a single reaction has to be calculated from the molecular masses of the reactants and products. In practice, due to the existence of isotopes, molar masses are used instead when calculating the mass ratio.