I just watched the simpsons, the one when santa's little helper joined the police force and bart gets a boa constrictor? Well apparently the snake knocks over a beaker of ethanol and nitric acid, and I think to myself "I know that makes nitromethane, which is rocket fuel, but how can I turn that into a molecular formula?"
So I try to do it... But, I am having trouble figuring out what the coefficients are supposed to be and whether water is a byproduct.... Now, I know methanol and nitric acid turn into nitromethane and water... so wtf... This is bugging me and I was hoping someone might be able to help me figure this out....
Using Ethanol and Nitric Acid without a water byproduct:
__C2H6O + __HNO3 => __CH3NO2
Using Ethanol and Nitric Acid with a water byproduct:
__C2H6O + __HNO3 => __CH3NO2 + __H2O
Using Methanol and Nitric Acid:
CH3OH + HNO3 => CH3NO2 + H2O
with this, it makes sense that H2O comes out of the equation to make it all add up.
Maybe I'm diving in too deep with this... I don't know.