Looking at everything at once can easily get overwhelming. The best way to approach these problems is slowly and systematically. Just remember to start with the element that shows up the least, and proceed from there. They range in difficulty level, so don’t get discouraged if some of them seem too hard. Try to balance these ten equations on your own, then check the answers below. P 4O 10 + 6 H 2O → 4 H 3PO 4 Balancing Chemical Equations Practice Problems This gives us the final balanced equation of On the right, we have 16 as well (four per molecule, with four molecules).
On the left, we have ten atoms of oxygen from P 4O 10 and six from H 2O for a total of 16. So, to balance those out, we have to put a six in front of H 2O on the left.Īt this point, we can check the oxygens to see if they balance.
So, there are two molecules of hydrogen on the left hand side and twelve on the right hand side (notice that there are three per molecule of H 3PO 4, and we have four molecules). It is easiest to start with molecules that only appear once on each side. We still want to avoid balancing oxygen, because it occurs in more than one molecule on the left hand side. So, we can put the coefficient of 4 on the molecule that has phosphorous on the right hand side to balance them out. There are four atoms of phosphorus on the left hand side, but only one on the right hand side. We could either start with phosphorus or hydrogen, so let’s start with phosphorus. Notice that oxygen occurs twice on the left hand side, so that is not a good element to start out with. At the end, make sure to count the number of atoms of each element on each side again, just to be sure.įirst, let’s look at the element that appears least often. Then, move on to the atom that shows up the second least number of times, and so on. It is best to start with the atom that shows up the least number of times on one side, and balancing that first. We can break the house apart and build an airplane, but the color and shape of the actual blocks do not change.īut how do we go about balancing these equations? We know that the number of atoms of each element needs to be the same on both sides of the equation, so it is just a matter of finding the correct coefficients (numbers in front of each molecule) to make that happen. An easy way to understand this is to picture a house made of blocks. This means that chemical reactions do not change the actual building blocks of matter rather, they just change the arrangement of the blocks. So, if we start with ten atoms of oxygen before a reaction, we need to end up with ten atoms of oxygen after a reaction. This stems from the universal law of the conservation of mass, which states that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. The ultimate goal for balancing chemical reactions is to make both sides of the reaction, the reactants and the products, equal in the number of atoms per element.
#Balanced chemical equation calculator series
This comprehensive guide will show you the steps to balance even the most challenging reactions and will walk you through a series of examples, from simple to complex. So many parts of chemistry depend on this vital skill, including stoichiometry, reaction analysis, and lab work. Of all the skills to know for chemistry, balancing chemical equations is perhaps the most important to master.
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