can you give me an easy way on balancing chemical equations bec im having a hard time in dealing with it...?

Answer 1

Well, it depends on what your balancing. For basic general balancing of equations, you basically just have to make sure both sides of the "---->" are the same. And it's basically a guess and check system. So if you have 5 carbon on side you should have 5 carbon on the other side.

if you have (and I'm just making up an example, I have no clue if the chemical reaction I am making exists):

C + O ---> CO2 (keep in mind the 2 is the subscript, it's a little two on the back of the oxygen). You can see on the left side you have 1 carbon, 1 oxygen, but on the right side. you have 1 carbon and 2 oxygen. That's unbalanced.

C+ 2O ----> CO2 Now you have 1 carbon on both sides and 2 oxygen on both sides. In general terms, you have a balanced equation.

A general rule of thumb, is you can NEVER change the subscripts (the little numbers at the bottom of a element) but you can put big number IN FRONT of of a chemical. Just like I put a 2 infront of oxygen.

Also, if I have

H + 2Br ----> HBr You will notice now that on the left side you have 1 hydrogen and 2 bromine. But on the left side you have 1 Hydrogen and 1 bromine. Well, to balacne this, you would have first put a 2 on the right hand side. but..you CANNOT do this!!!

H + 2Br----> H2Br bad....don't do it. You have to do this.

H + 2Br----> 2HBr You have to put the two in front of the hydrogen because those two have bonded together. On the left hand side, you can add numbers to them individually, because of the + signs means they haven't bonded yet. Those are the individual elements going into the reactions.

So...now looking at our equation. We can see that on the left hand side we have 1 Hydrogen and 2 Bromine and on the right hand side we have 2 Hydrogen and 2 Bromine. Well, it's still not balanced, because the two sides still don't match. We need to balance the hydrogen. The easiest way to do this, is to add a 2 on the left hand side of the hydrogen. So you will get something like this :

2H + 2Br ---> 2HBr

So now we have on the left, 2H 2Br and on the right we have 2H and 2Br. We have a balanced equation.

Now if there were a subscript like say O2 (a small two hanging at the bottom of the O) and we but a number in front of it. Like say 3O2 (the two being the subscript.) Then we would multiply those and say we had 6 oxygen because 3x2 = 6. We don't add that. We multiply. For the subscripts. So saying:

3C + O ---> CO2 (not balanced) Because we have 3C and 1O on the left and 1C and 2O on the right.

3C + 6O --> 3CO2 Now we have 3C and 6O on the left and 3C and 6O on the right because I had to multiply the 3x2 to get my 6 because the 2 was a subscript on the oxygen. But non subscript numbers you add!


So when you are doing it, count how many of each element is one one side and how much of each element is on the other side. Make sure they match! If they don't, it's an unbalanced equation. You sometimes you'll just have to throw numbers in there and add them together and see. And remember the number goes in front of the element! And if the element is attached to another element. It goes in front of that too! And accounts for the whole bond!

So if you trying to add a 2 to Carbon that's attached to oxygen like before. 2CO it will equal 2Carbon AND 2 Oxygen. So keep that in mind while balancing and just keep practicing! You'll get it!

Answer 2

tips:

when you see H20 as a reactant to an eqn, the 1st thing you need to do is put 2 before it to make the the "O" an even no.

balance first the metals
then the nonmetals
then last is either H/O
it will be easier for you to balance chem eqn if you follow this.

the rest will be a trial and error process