Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Balancing a Chemical Equation
- Symbols of Physical States
- Gaseous
- Liquid
- Aqueous
- Solid
- Summary
- What’s Next?
In the first segment, we learnt about balancing the chemical equations. In this segment, we will revise the concept of balancing the chemical equations with another example.
How to balance a chemical equation?
To balance a chemical equation we need to follow a few steps. Let us consider the unbalanced equation ?? + ??? → ????? + ?? to understand these steps.
- Make boxes around the reactants and products as shown in the figure. The element or
compound inside the box cannot be changed.
+ +
F2
H2
Fe2O4
H2O
- Draw a table with the name of the elements and number of atoms as shown below.
| Elements | Number of Atoms in Reactants | Number of Atoms in Products |
| Fe | 1 | 3 |
| H | 2 | 2 |
| O | 4 | 1 |
Table 1
According to table 1, the number of Oxygen and Iron atoms on the reactants side is
Not Equal to the number of atoms on the products side.
- Begin by balancing the atom of the element that has the highest number of atoms. Here, it’s Oxygen.
So, multiply ?2? with 4 to balance the number of atoms of Oxygen.
F2
H2
+ 4 +
Fe2O4
H2O
According to table 2, the number of Hydrogen and Iron atoms on the reactants side is
Not Equal to the number of atoms on the products side
| Elements | Number of Atoms in Reactants | Number of Atoms in Products |
| Fe | 1 | 3 |
| H | 8 | 2 |
| O | 4 | 4 |
Table 2
- Multiply the ?? with 4 to balance the number of atoms of Hydrogen.
F2
H2
+ 4 + 4
Fe2O4
H2O
According to table 3, the number of atoms of Oxygen and Hydrogen is now Equal, but the number of Iron atoms is Not Equal.
| Elements | Number of Atoms in Reactants | Number of Atoms in Products |
| Fe | 1 | 3 |
| H | 8 | 8 |
| O | 4 | 4 |
Table 3
- To balance the number of Iron atoms, multiply Fe with 3.
3 + 4 + 4
F2
H2
Fe2O4
H2O
According to table 4, the number of atoms of Oxygen, Hydrogen and Iron is now
Equal.
