Compare the chemical composition of each substance to carbon dioxide, which...

Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the formula CO₂. It consists of one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms.

Glucose is a simple sugar with the chemical formula C₆H₁₂O₆. It is made up of six carbon atoms, twelve hydrogen atoms, and six oxygen atoms.

It is not possible to compare the chemical composition of each substance to carbon dioxide directly because they have different chemical formulas. However, we can compare the number of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms in each molecule.

The complete oxidation of glucose produces six molecules of carbon dioxide and six molecules of water. Therefore, the chemical composition of glucose can be compared to that of carbon dioxide by multiplying the number of atoms in one molecule of carbon dioxide by six.

Substance   Chemical Formula   Number of Carbon Atoms   Number of Hydrogen Atoms   Number of Oxygen Atoms
Carbon Dioxide   CO₂   1   0   2
Glucose   C₆H₁₂O₆   6   12   6
As we can see from the table, glucose has more carbon and hydrogen atoms than carbon dioxide, but fewer oxygen atoms.