So the balanced equation is 2NO + O2 --> 2NO2
75×2/2=75mL
50×2/1=100mL
75+100=175mL
175/2=87.5mL
Is that the correct thinking? The answers I have agree with those calculations
The answer happens to be right; I have no idea what your thinking was. Why do you multiply 50 by 2 and add to 75?
75 mL of NO (the limiting reagent) react with 37.5 mL O
2 to give 75 mL NO
2, with 12.5 mL O
2 unreacted. Total vol = 75 + 12.5 = 87.5 mL.
I don't get the second part. The answers say O2=14.5kPa and NO2=86.8kPa and the mass of NO2produced is 0.144g; however, I don't really trust the answers.
Why don't you trust the answers? They're right. What intuition suggests to you they might be wrong?
There is a way of talking about gas mixtures that can be confusing; talking as if each gas occupied a certain volume at the total pressure. That happens to be the easiest way of answering the first question, but of course it isn't really like that. The gases are mixed, and each occupies the whole volume, with a partial pressure proportional to its mole fraction. So rather than saying we have 12.5 mL of oxygen at 101.3 kPa, we actually have 87.5 mL of oxygen at a partial pressure of 101.3 * 12.5/87.5 = 14.5 kPa.