You will realise balancing chemical equation is not rocket science once you the basic idea on how to balance a chemical equation. It is all about balancing the reactants and products to satisfy the Law of Conservation of Mass. All you need to do is make sure each type of atoms on the left side of the equation is equal to the right side of the equation. You will easily be able to ace it if you do enough practice.
Here is a step-by-step process which you can follow:
Write down the equation
Your first step would be writing down the unbalanced equation. The reactants will go to the left side of the arrow and the products on the right side.
Here is an example of a chemical equation:
Fe+O2ÆFe2O3
Add the number of atoms
Now you have to determine the number of atoms presenting on each side of the arrow. You must remember that subscript always indicates the number of atoms.
So on the basis of our equation,
On the reactant side we have:
1 Fe
2 O
On the product side, we have,
2 Fe
3 O
Since the number of atoms is not equal, so it is pretty clear that the equation is not balanced. So now you have to add coefficients beside the chemical formulas to balance the equation.
Add coefficients
When there is no coefficient, it means that there is 1 molecule.
In this part, we will give you a trick that will help with balancing equations quickly. This is called balancing by inspection. So you already know that you have to add coefficients to the molecules for balancing the atoms. Now the trick is to try balancing the atoms which are present in a single molecule of reactant and product first. At last, you can balance the oxygen or hydrogen.
So in the equation F+O2 Æ Fe2O3, you might think putting 2 beside F will solve but it ain’t that easy. You need to adjust oxygen too since it is also not balanced. So to do that, you have to add 4Fe and then add 2 coefficients in front of rust (iron oxide) molecule.
Your equation will look like this:
4Fe +O2 Æ Fe2O3
Balance oxygen and a hydrogen atom
The last step would be to add coefficients to oxygen and hydrogen atoms. Since they come in multiple reactants and products, it is not a good idea to tackle them first. So to balance oxygen, your equation will look like this:
4Fe+3O Æ 2Fe2O3
Here is a brief process for balancing chemical equation like a pro. Make sure you follow the steps as directed in this blog if you are unsure about how to balance a chemical equation.
