Balancing Equations - Bitesize
Balancing Equations - Bitesize
Equations are important and balancing them is hard, what do? Read on of course!
Equations are important and balancing them is hard, what do? Read on of course!
Why Do We Do Balancing Of Equations And What Is It?
When you get stuff and make the stuff do stuff, it changes the stuff and now you have new stuff. KABLOW! That's what chemical reactions are, and when you balance them, you get the stuff given to you and you have to figure out how much of the stuff there is, obeying the law of conservation of mass (no stuff can stop being or start being, stuff can only change), ez.
Balancing Time!
Alright, time for what you've all been waiting for, tips on balancing. Lets get started.
- Remember, you have to balance the elements on each side (same amounts of each element on both sides).
- Don't let big molecules scare you, just take note of the individual elements, then once you balance one element, see how you've affected the rest of the atoms in the molecules you changed and keep going.
- Go from left to right so you can keep track of what elements you've already balanced. (do this as long as it doesn't break tip 5 or 7, they take priority over this tip)
- To balance, you can only duplicate molecules on either side, not remove anything or just add random stuff as it suits you.
- When balancing elements always give priority to the less prevalent elements in the equation (e.g. in the equation, CH3OH + O2 ---> H2O + CO2, you would balance the carbon first because it only occurs once on either side of the equation, so there are less ways to balance it and less variables to have to try until you find the right one)
- When balancing elements, if an element is on its own on one side, balance it last (e.g. In, Ca + H2O ---> Ca(OH)2 + H2, you would balance the calcium last because on one of the sides it is on its own, without any numbers, so you can just add however many of it you need at the end.)
- When balancing an element, if it has one of it on one side and double of it on the other side prioritize making the single of the element an even amount so you can balance it (e.g. In, Al + HCl ---> AlCl3 + H2, you would start by timesing HCl by an even number so the hydrogen on both sides are even amounts so you can times the H2 to match)
Alright, there's the basic stuff, now I'll dish out a worked example to show you what's up.
Now It's Your Turn!
Go to this link for practice balancing equations, good luck!
https://education.jlab.org/elementbalancing/