En química, la estequiometría (del griego στοιχειον, stoicheion, 'elemento' y μετρον, métrón, 'medida') es el cálculo de las relaciones cuantitativas entre los reactivos y productos en el transcurso de una reacción química. Estas relaciones se pueden deducir a partir de la teoría atómica, aunque históricamente se enunciaron sin hacer referencia a la composición de la materia, según distintas leyes y principios. El primero que enunció los principios de la estequiometría fue Jeremias Benjamin Richter (1762-1807), en 1792, quien describió la estequiometría de la siguiente manera: «La estequiometría es la ciencia que mide las proporciones cuantitativas o relaciones de masa de los elementos químicos que están implicados (en una reacción química)». También estudia la proporción de los distintos elementos en un compuesto químico y la composición de mezclas químicas.

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Stoichiometry /ˌstɔɪkiˈɒmᵻtri/ is the calculation of relative quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions. Stoichiometry is founded on the law of conservation of mass where the total mass of the reactants equals the total mass of the products leading to the insight that the relations among quantities of reactants and products typically form a ratio of positive integers. This means that if the amounts of the separate reactants are known, then the amount of the product can be calculated. Conversely, if one reactant has a known quantity and the quantity of product can be empirically determined, then the amount of the other reactants can also be calculated. This is illustrated in the image here, where the balanced equation is: CH4 + 2 O2 → CO2 + 2 H2O. Here, one molecule of methane reacts with two molecules of oxygen gas to yield one molecule of carbon dioxide and two molecules of water. Stoichiometry measures these quantitative relationships, and is used to determine the amount of products/reactants that are produced/needed in a given reaction. Describing the quantitative relationships among substances as they participate in chemical reactions is known as reaction stoichiometry. In the example above, reaction stoichiometry measures the relationship between the methane and oxygen as they react to form carbon dioxide and water. Because of the well known relationship of moles to atomic weights, the ratios that are arrived at by stoichiometry can be used to determine quantities by weight in a reaction described by a balanced equation. This is called composition stoichiometry. Gas stoichiometry deals with reactions involving gases, where the gases are at a known temperature, pressure, and volume and can be assumed to be ideal gases. For gases, the volume ratio is ideally the same by the ideal gas law, but the mass ratio of a single reaction has to be calculated from the molecular masses of the reactants and products. In practice, due to the existence of isotopes, molar masses are used instead when calculating the mass ratio.

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