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Balancing Chemical Equations

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29 views18 pages

Balancing Chemical Equations

Uploaded by

suzannevillasis19
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What goes in must come out!

Chemical equation - Describes a chemical change.


Parts of an equation:

Reactant Product

2Ag + H2S Ag2S + H2

Reaction symbol
Reactant - The chemical(s) you start with before the
reaction.
 Written on left side of equation.
Product - The new chemical(s) formed by the
reaction.
 Right side of equation.
Subscript - shows how many atoms of an element
are in a molecule.
 EX: H2O
2 atoms of hydrogen (H)
1 atom of oxygen (O)

Coefficient - shows how many molecules there are


of a particular chemical.
 EX: 3 H2O
Means there are 3 water molecules.
2H2 + O2  2H2O
In a chem. rxn, matter is neither created nor
destroyed.
 In other words, the number and type of atoms going
INTO a rxn must be the same as the number and type of
atoms coming OUT.
If an equation obeys the Law of Conservation, it is
balanced.
CH4 + O2  CO2 + H2O

Reactant Side Product Side

1 carbon atom 1 carbon atom


4 hydrogen atoms 2 hydrogen atoms
2 oxygen atoms 3 oxygen atoms
A Balanced Equation

CH4 + 2O2  CO2 + 2H2O

Reactant Side Product Side

1 carbon atom 1 carbon atom


4 hydrogen atoms 4 hydrogen atoms
4 oxygen atoms 4 oxygen atoms
1. Matter cannot be created or destroyed.
2. Subscripts cannot be added, removed, or changed.
3. You can only change coefficients.
4. Coefficients can only go in front of chem.
formulas...NEVER in the middle of a formula.
A few extra tips:
Try balancing big formulas first; save free elements for last.
If the same polyatomic ion appears on both sides of the
equation, it’s usually okay to treat it as one unit.
There is no one particular way to balance equations. Some
equations are harder to balance than others and might require
some creativity to solve.
1. Write all reactants 2. Use
on the left and all coefficients in
products on the front of each
right side of the
equation arrow. formula to
Make sure you balance the
write the correct number of
formula for each atoms on each
element side.
4. It is often easiest to start
3. Multiply the balancing with an element
coefficient of that appears only once on
each element by each side of the arrow.
These elements must have
the subscript of the same coefficient. Next
the element to balance elements that
appear only once on each
count the atoms. side but have different
Then list the numbers of atoms. Finally
number of atoms balance elements that are
in two formulas in the
of each element same side.
on each side.
Balance elements that appear only once on
each side of the arrow.
Next balance elements that appear only
once on each side but have different
numbers of atoms.
Finally balance elements that are in two
formulas in the same side.
Balance the following equation by adjusting
coefficients.

N2 + 3 H2  2NH3

reactants products

N 2 21
H 6
2 63
Balance the following equation by adjusting
coefficients.

2 KClO3  2 KCl + 3O2


reactants products

K 1
2 12
Cl 1
2 1
2
O 3
6 2
6
Balance the following equation:
2 C2H6 + 7O2  4CO2 + 6H2O
Balance the following equation:
 4 Fe +3 O2  2 Fe2O3
Try to balance these equations using the same
method:

[1] Na + Cl2  NaCl

[2] CH4 + O2  CO2 + H2O

[3] Li + HNO3  LiNO3 + H2

[4] Al + O2  Al2O3
How did you get on??
Here are the answers:

[1] 2 Na + Cl2  2 NaCl

[2] CH4 + 2 O2  CO2 + 2 H2O

[3] 2 Li + 2 HNO3  2 LiNO3 + H2

[4] 4 Al + 3 O2  2 Al2O3

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