im confused, why is there never a 100% yield in chemistry?

Answer 1

all reactions are going both ways. for instance, H2 + O2--->H2O ( I know it's not balanced) also goes from H2O---->H2 + O2. A 100% yield is never acheived because the reaction reaches a state of equilibrium where the reactants are going from H2 + O2--->H2O just as fast as they are going from H2O--->H2 + O2.

An entire semester of inorganic chemistry is devoted to the concept of equalibrium.

Answer 2

Because of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics (the law of entropy) which basically states that the amount of energy that can be gotten out of any closed system decreases over time. This is what makes perpetual motion machines impossible------you can't even break even and get as much energy out as you put in without putting more in than you get out--------so it''s a rough and tough universe we're in. Entropy can also be considered a measure of disorder-------You can easily shuffle a brand new deck of cards so as to completely disorder them, but just try to continue shuffling until you shuffle them back into perfect order and let me know when you do.

Answer 3

The theoretical yield is based on circumstances in which nothing is interferring with the reaction. In reality this is never true, there is always something interferring with the reaction. In addition there are always measurement errors, solutions are almost never exactly the concentration they are calculated to be, and product is easily lost in transferring and purification steps.

Answer 4

This has to do with psychic resonance. Ghosts are actually ripples of psychic energy that can be observed by people with really good imaginations or schizophrenia. Early chemists noticed that although energy cannot be created or destroyed, chemical equations need not be balanced. This is because some energy is lost to psychic resonance.

Answer 5

Chaos theory? Thermodynamics - entropy? Efficiency? Impure, not perfectly mixed mixtures? Somebody is watching?

Hope this helps!