Answer:
Steps explained below
Explanation:
To explain balancing of chemical equations, I will make use of an example equation where Hydrogen and oxygen react to form water.
H2 + O2 = H2O
Now, the equation I've listed above is an unbalanced chemical equation. It can be balanced by the following steps;
Step 1: Identify the elements on both the left Hand side and the right hand side.
In this case;
on the left hand side, we have H and O.
On the right hand side, we have H and I also.
Step 2: Identify the number of atoms of each element on both the left and right hand sides.
On the left, H has 2 atoms and O has 2 atoms.
On the right, H has 2 atoms and O has 1 atom.
Step 3: For the equation to be balanced, the number of atoms of each element on the right and left hand side must be the same.
Thus,
O on the left hand side has 2 atoms but on the right hand side it has 1 atom. Thus, we will multiply O on the right by 2 to balance what we have on the left.
So, we now have;
H2 + O2 = 2H2O
Step 4: Check equation: We now have;
H2 + O2 = 2H2O
Our left hand side remains 2 atoms of H and 2 atoms of O. But on the right, we now have;
2 atoms O and 4 atoms of H.
Which means atoms of H is not balanced with the left side.
Step 5: rebalance equation: To rebalance, we multiply H on the left by 2 to give us 2 × 2 = 4 atoms.
Thus, we now have;
2H2 + O2 = 2H2O
