The Law of Conservation of Mass states that matter cannot be created or destroyed. Thus, the mass of substances produced in a chemical reaction is always equal to the mass of reacting substances. Therefore, you need to have the same number of each type of element on each side of a chemical equation. This is the whole purpose of balancing a chemical equation.<\/p>\n
Single elements or any diatomic elements, should be left last to balance. This is because whatever coefficient you put in front of the element will not mess up everything that you have already balanced in the equation.<\/p>\n
_ C2<\/sub>H2<\/sub> + _ O2<\/sub> -> _ CO2<\/sub> + _ H2<\/sub>O<\/p>\n Balance all the other elements first and leave oxygen (O2<\/sub>) for last as it is just a single element.<\/p>\n 2 C2<\/sub>H2<\/sub> + _ O2<\/sub> <\/strong>-> 4 CO2<\/sub> + 2 H2<\/sub>O<\/p>\n 2 C2<\/sub>H2<\/sub> + 10 O2<\/sub> -> 4 CO2<\/sub> + 2 H2<\/sub>O<\/strong><\/p>\n If the polyatomic ion occurs in the same form on both sides of the equation, treat it as one unit.<\/p>\n _ Hg(OH)2<\/sub> + _ H3<\/sub>PO4<\/sub> -> _ Hg3<\/sub>(PO4<\/sub>)2<\/sub> + _ H2<\/sub>O<\/p>\n In this case, we treat PO4<\/sub> as a single unit since it occurs in the same form on both sides of the equation. Although OH is a polyatomic ion, it does not<\/strong> occur in the same form on both sides of the equation, and thus, we do not<\/strong> treat it as a single unit.<\/p>\n _ Hg(OH)2<\/sub> + 2 H3<\/sub>PO4<\/sub> -> _ Hg3<\/sub>(PO4<\/sub>)2<\/sub> + _ H2<\/sub>O<\/p>\n Since we\u2019re treating PO4<\/sub> as a single unit and there is a subscript of 2 outside the brackets of PO4<\/sub>, the coefficient in front of H3<\/sub>PO4 <\/sub>would be a 2.<\/p>\n 3 Hg(OH)2<\/sub> + 2 H3<\/sub>PO4<\/sub> -> _ Hg3<\/sub>(PO4<\/sub>)2<\/sub> + _ H2<\/sub>O<\/p>\n A coefficient of 3 would go in front of Hg(OH)2 <\/sub>because the product is Hg3<\/sub>.<\/p>\n 3 Hg(OH)2<\/sub> + 2 H3<\/sub>PO4<\/sub> -> Hg3<\/sub>(PO4<\/sub>)2<\/sub> + 6 H2<\/sub>O<\/strong><\/p>\n Going through the chemical equation, we can conclude that the coefficient in front of H2<\/sub>O should be a 6 as it balances all the hydrogens and oxygens out in the equation. The coefficient in front of Hg3<\/sub>(PO4<\/sub>)2 <\/sub>would be a 1.<\/p>\n Do you also need help with Geography<\/a>?<\/p>\n SchoolTutoring Academy<\/span> is the premier educational services company for K-12 and college students. We offer tutoring programs for students in K-12, AP classes, and college. To learn more about how we help parents and students in Airdrie visit: Tutoring in Airdrie.<\/a><\/p>\n This article was written for you by Samantha<\/strong>, one of the tutors with SchoolTutoring Academy<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Law of Conservation of Mass states that matter cannot be created or destroyed. Thus, the mass of substances produced in a chemical reaction is always equal to the mass of reacting substances. Therefore, you need to have the same number of each type of element on each side of a chemical equation. This is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,16],"tags":[172,173,842,887,1990],"class_list":["post-4883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-science","tag-balancing-chemistry","tag-balancing-equations","tag-how-do-you-balance-equations","tag-how-to-solve-chem-questions","tag-what-are-chemical-equations"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Polyatomic ions<\/h4>\n
Example:<\/h5>\n