Question

Place whole number coefficients in the blanks to balance the chemical reaction. ____ H2O --> ____ H2 + ____ O2

Answer 1

Answer:
2 H₂O ............> 2 H₂ + O₂

Explanation:
To balance a chemical equation, we need to make sure that the number of moles of each element on the reactants side is equal to the number of moles of that elements on the products side.

For the given equation:
H₂O ............> H₂ + O₂
We need to make sure that:
number of moles of reacting hydrogen = number of moles of produced hydrogen
number of moles of reacting oxygen = number of moles of produced oxygen

1- Let's check the Oxygen:
On the reactant side, we have one mole of oxygen
On the products side, we have two moles of oxygen
To balance this, we can multiply the reactants side by 2.
This will give us:
2 H₂O ............> H₂ + O₂

2- Let's check the Hydrogen:
From part 1, we reached the following equation:
2 H₂O ............> H₂ + O₂
From this equation, we can note that:
On the reactant side, we have 2*2 = 4 moles of hydrogen
On the products side, we have 2 moles of hydrogen
To balance this, we can multiply the hydrogen in the products side by 2
This will give us:
2 H₂O ............> 2 H₂ + O₂

3- Let's check:
The equation we reached in part 2 is:
2 H₂O ............> 2 H₂ + O₂
Checking this equation, we can find that:
We have 2*2 = 4 hydrogen moles on reactants side and 2*2 = 4 hydrogen moles on products side
We have 2 oxygen moles on reactants side and 2 oxygen moles on products side
Therefore,
The equation is balanced

Hope this helps :)

Answer 2

It will be
H2O》H2 + (1/2)O2.