To determine the total mass of the products in a chemical reaction, you need to know the balanced chemical equation. The balanced equation provides the stoichiometric ratios between the reactants and products.
Without the specific balanced chemical equation, it is not possible to determine the exact total mass of the products. In a chemical reaction, the total mass is conserved, meaning that the mass of the reactants should equal the mass of the products. However, the specific masses of the reactants alone cannot provide the necessary information to calculate the mass of the products accurately.
For example, consider the simple reaction of hydrogen gas (H2) reacting with oxygen gas (O2) to form water (H2O):
2H2 + O2 -> 2H2O
In this case, if you had 20 g of hydrogen gas and 30 g of oxygen gas, you could determine the theoretical yield of water using stoichiometry. However, the actual mass of the products would depend on the limiting reactant, which is the reactant that is completely consumed and determines the maximum amount of product that can be formed.
Without the balanced chemical equation and information regarding the limiting reactant, it is not possible to accurately determine the total mass of the products based solely on the masses of the reactants.