Monday, May 26, 2008

What is a balanced chemical equation?

A balanced chemical equation is one in which the number of atoms of each element and the total charge (positive and negative) is same on both the reactant and product side. For example, the following chemical equation is not balanced:



since, there are 2 atoms each of hydrogen and oxygen on the reactant side, while the product side contains 2 atoms of hydrogen and only 1 atom of oxygen. Hence this chemical equation is not balanced in terms of oxygen and needs to be balanced. The balanced chemical equation, in this case, is:



Now, the equation has equal number of atoms of hydrogen and oxygen on both sides of the reaction. In general, to balance an equation, we start with element at a time and balance its atoms on both sides and then move to the next element and so on.


Hope this helps. 

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