Balancing Chemical Equations

[Riley Joe 2K]

Are there any specific strategies or methods you guys would recommend for balancing more complex chemical reactions, especially those with multiple products and reactants? Also, could there be a chemical equation where you have to balance multiple times, let's say it's like C100H35 (just random).

[Dominic]

I would personally recommend keeping track of all the elements on both sides at all time using a small table.

For Ex
C6H12O6 + 6O2 --> 6H2O + 6CO2
6 C 6
12 H 12
18 O 18

As for the order the order in which to do the balancing. Start with the elements that appear the least

[Mark Cortes 2I]

My go to strategy to balance chemical equations is by counting and writing down the number of atoms from each element.
For example: N2 + 6H2 --> NH6, is an unbalanced equation.
Write down the number of nitrogen and hydrogen atoms on the left side: N=2, H=12.
Then, right down the number of each element on the right side: N=1, H=6.
From this, we can easily tell that the number of nitrogen atoms of the reactants is double that of the nitrogen atoms of the products.
Similarly, the number of hydrogen atoms of the reactants (12), is also double that of the hydrogen atoms of the products (6).
Since the atoms in the product are half of the reactants, we must use the stoichoimetric coefficent of 2 to place before NH6. This doubles the number of atoms in the products, balancing the chemical equation into 12 atoms in each side.

[205903804]

Hi! When balancing chemical equations, first I like to write out the number of elements present on each side. By doing this, I feel like I have a baseline of how many elements I am working with. Then, I can start experimenting with numbers and calculating coefficients to determine the right balanced equation. I hope this helps!