Balancing Chemical Reactions

[Jennifer Tuell 1B]

Does anyone have any tips and tricks for quickly balancing equations?

[Shione Nakahara 1F]

I usually look for an element that appears only once on both sides of the equation and balance that first :) Make sure the amount of different elements on both sides are equal. But it also might help to balance the polyatomic molecules first!

[Alejandro Salazar 1D]

Hi, there's a similar helpful post already under, "How to balance". A technique for more complex equations. Balance compounds that appear once. Often, it is required to use fractions and then multiply the entire equation by the denominator of the function to cancel out the fraction.

[Odalys Cuevas 1C]

What works for me is to draw a vertical line in the arrow and then on each side write down each of the elements with the number each has. Then I see which one shows up less on one side and more on the other and balance those. Then I see which ones are left to balance and go for what of the products will cause less change on the elements that are already balanced. Also each time keep track of the new amount of each element there is when you add or take a coefficient.

[Dennisse Diaz 1D]

I am confused about how to balance an equation that involves fractions... An example is making 2Ca--> 5Ca. How would we go about this? I know you have to use fractions and then turn them into whole numbers, but I am still confused as to how to approach it and fully solve it.

[Betty Wolkeba section 1L]

Whenever one of the stoichiometric coefficients is a fraction, multiply the entire equation by the denominator. That would get rid of the fraction and multiply all the coefficients by a factor of the denominator.