Question

what does building cars have to do with chemistry?
in the dune buggy assembly problem, the number of engines present limited how many dune buggies you could make. no matter how many wheels, seats, and sets of controls there were, as long as there was only one engine, only one dune buggy could be made. so in this case, the engine was the limiting reactant. limiting reactants limit the amount of product made. it is the first thing to run out in a process.
the other reactants in the process or equation are called excess reactants. excess reactants are left over after the process is complete.
based on the previous problem, label the dune buggy parts as either limiting or excess reactants.
12 wheels
1 engine
5 controls
5 seats

Explanation:

The problem is about identifying limiting and excess reactants in a dune - buggy assembly analogy. The limiting reactant is the one that runs out first and limits the amount of product (dune - buggy). In the given example, the engine is the limiting reactant as it is the first to run out. The other parts (wheels, controls, seats) are in excess as there are more of them available than needed based on the number of engines.

Answer:

• 12 wheels: Excess reactant
• 1 engine: Limiting reactant
• 5 controls: Excess reactant
• 5 seats: Excess reactant