Steps to Balancing Chemical Equations

[Pages:1]Steps to Balancing Chemical Equations

1. Count the number of atoms of each element in the reactants and the products. List each element and how many atoms it has underneath the reactants and products.

Example:

HCl

+

H ? 1 Cl ? 1 Na ? 2 S ? 1

Na2S

H2S +

H ? 2 Cl ? 1 Na ? 1 S ? 1

NaCl

2. To balance out the atoms add in coefficients.

Example:

2 HCl +

Na2S H2S +

NaCl

H ? 1 2 Cl ? 1 2 Na ? 2 S ? 1

H ? 2 Cl ? 1 Na ? 1 S ? 1

Example:

2 HCl +

Na2S H2S +

2 NaCl

H ? 1 2 Cl ? 1 2 Na ? 2 S ? 1

H ? 2 Cl ? 1 2 Na ? 1 2 S ? 1

3. Make sure that there are equal numbers of atoms for each element on both sides of the equation.

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download