When are atoms unpredictable?

[Silvershadow]

I'm playing with a theory I have at the moment and wondered if anyone could help with giving me some good examples of chemical/molecular bonding in which the partners' an atom will acquire are unpredictable.
For example if I had 1g of Hydrogen atoms, 8g of oxygen atoms and 3g of carbon would the end result be predictable. If not when are such examples 'unpredictable'?

Silvershadow

[Bystander]

"Predictable?" In principle, yes; in practice, for the C-H-O system (or other system), the data/information required for predicting equilibrium composition, free energies of formation for ALL possible products, is not available. Same thing for any other chemical system --- there is one equilibrium state for any specified overall/total composition and T,P,ρ.

[Silvershadow]

I don't get it. This equilibrium state, is it always predictable that free molecules and atoms will act a certain way?

Silvershadow

[Bystander]

Originally posted by Silvershadow
I don't get it. This equilibrium state, is it always predictable that free molecules and atoms will act a certain way?

Silvershadow

It's called "chemistry." If you mean, "Can the behavior of a specific, labelled atom be predicted?" the answer is no. The example would be predicting the location of an atom or molecule in a container --- see "the drunkard's walk."