How to approach chemistry problem?

Sorry, we don’t do homework for people here.

well, if they’re asking us to solve it they’re not giving enough info to do that, so I’m hoping that’s not the case.

Basically, you have a few reactions going on here. In general, the reaction is

Fe(III)O + Al -> Fe + AlO

note, this is not balanced in the least, just the start. From here, you’ll need to balance it to make sure all the stoichimetry and such is correct (atoms in = atoms out, charges balanced, etc). At that point, you have your reaction, so you know what’s happening, then it’s just a question of finding the energies.

An enthalpy of formation is the energy it takes to make a compound out of it’s constituent elements. For example, to make water, you’d need ½O2 + H2 -> H2O. The energy required to actually drive that reaction is the heat of formation, and is listed in your book. For anything not in it’s standard state (a pure element in whatever state it is at STP, so a gas for O2 and H2 above), you need to find the energy of getting to that state. So, next you find all the compounds in your equation that are not in their standard state, and look up their energies and formation reactions in your book.

Next, you again balance. The formation equation and the equation you have will be different than your final equation, so you’ll need to scale or flip equations to make them fit (for instance, if you start with a compound not in standard state, you’ll have to flip it’s formation equation). You’ll then have to change the energies to compensate. How to do it should be in your book.

Then, once these are consistent, the equations should match, any extra atoms should cancel out. If so, you’re good! Now you have your energies, and you find the change in energy between the equations to answer the question. If they don’t match, keep changing the equations until they do.

Then, you’re pretty much done except for scale. Your question says 2 moles are used, so you’ll need to make sure that number matches your equation, or you have to scale to match. That’s easy if you get to that part, though.

@zenvelo There is nothing wrong with asking for help with homework on Fluther. Perhaps your response should read “Sorry, I don’t do homework for people here”. In which case, why bother?

@FunnyFelipa That being said, you will find that people are more inclined to help you if you are polite and explain that you’ve tried to solve the problem yourself first – and what steps you’ve already taken to do so.

Thank you very much @BhacSsylan . I’m working through that now.

@dappled_leaves Thank you for your input! I don’t ask people to complete my homework for me, and I see that it would have been helpful to explain the situation.