Subject: Organic and Inorganic Chemistry • When balancing equations, there are several

things you can do:

BALANCING of CHEMICAL EQUATIONS
What is a Chemical Equation?
• When a chemical reaction occurs between
solutions it can be described by an equation.
• This shows the chemicals that react (called
reactants) on the left-hand side
• The two sides are separated by an arrow that
shows what is yielded from the reactants.
• The chemicals that are produce (called
products) on the right-hand side.
• Look at this chemical equation:
4Al + 3O2  2Al2O3
• Oxygen gas is diatomic, it is always in pairs.
• A molecule of aluminum oxide consists of two
aluminum atoms combined with three oxygen
atoms.
Balancing the Equation
• We can balance the equation by looking at
what is doesn’t make sense in the equation. We see
first that there are Balancing the Equation
• 2 Al on the right, so we add 2 to the left
2 Al + O2  Al2O3
• You may never put numbers that alter the
formula itself.
H2O  H4O2
• Don't worry if the numbers turn out to be
fractions - you can always double or triple all
the numbers at a later stage.
• If you recognize the atoms that make up a
standard group such as sulphate, nitrate,
phosphate, etc. that go unmarked throughout
the chemical reaction, treat them as an
indivisible item to be balanced as a whole.
• Leave molecules representing elements until
last. This means that any numbers you put in
front of those molecules won't unbalance any
other molecule.
STATES OF MATTER
• To make a chemical equation complete, the
state of matter of each substance should also be
included.
• (s) solid
• (l) liquid
• (g) gas
• (aq) aqueous (dissolved in water)
• Example: solid magnesium ribbon burns in
oxygen gas to form solid magnesium oxide:

• Now there are the same number of Al atoms, Mg (s) + O2 (g)  MgO (s)
we see that there is one more atom of O on the left,
2 Mg (s) + O2 (g)  2 MgO (s)
we must find a common factor of 6 on each side by
adding 3 on the left & 2 on the right
2 Al + 3 O2  2Al2O3 This is what you guys are going to do
• Now that we have the O balanced we find that • Pb(NO3)2 + 2KI    PbI2 + 2K(NO3)
Al is not, we must add 2 more Al to make it 4
• Pb(NO3)2 + 2KI    PbI2 + 2K(NO3)
4Al + 3O2  2Al2O3
• Now if you count you will find that there are 4
Al atoms on each side and 6 O atoms. Balanced!
1C2H6 + 1O2  2CO2 + 3H2O
C2H6 + O2  CO2 + 3H2O
C2H6 + O2  2CO2 + 3H2O
2(C2H6 + 3.5O2 )  2(2CO2 + 3H2O)
2C2H6 + 7O2  4CO2 + 6H2O
BALANCED!