How many cubic feet of oxygen are required to burn one cubic foot of natural gas?

To understand the relationship between natural gas and oxygen during combustion, it's essential to recognize that natural gas primarily consists of methane (CH4). The chemical reaction for the combustion of methane is as follows:

[ CH_4 + 2O_2 \rightarrow CO_2 + 2H_2O ]

This equation indicates that it takes two molecules of oxygen to completely combust one molecule of methane. Since gases under standard conditions have a volume that is proportional to their number of molecules, we can extend this understanding to volumes.

For every cubic foot of natural gas burned, two cubic feet of oxygen are needed to ensure complete combustion. However, in practical scenarios, a more common approximation is that approximately 10 cubic feet of air is needed to burn one cubic foot of natural gas, because air contains about 21% oxygen.

To find out how much oxygen is required directly, considering the volumetric ratio of air to oxygen, we see that:

• Since 1 cubic foot of natural gas requires about 10 cubic feet of air to combust,

• With air being approximately 21% oxygen, the volume of oxygen in 10 cubic feet of air can be approximated as:

[ 10 \text{ cubic feet of air} \