Question

Explain why subscripts cannot change when balancing a chemical equation

Answer 1

not be changed to balance an equationSubscripts are part of the chemical formula for reactants or products and can

Changing a subscript changes the substance represented by the formula

Answer 2

Subscripts are the identity of the element (the number of atoms) whereas coefficients are the number of molecules of the element.

If you change the subscript, you change the number of atoms an element has. This changes the entire element since each element in the periodic table have different atomic numbers.