balancing chemical reactions

[Andrea- 3J]

_Cu+_HNO3-> _Cu(NO3)2+_NO+_H2O

[NabilaNizam-1K]

Cu + 4HNO3 --> Cu(NO3)2 + 2NO + 2 H2O

[Andrea- 3J]

Hi,
I tried it your way but I still got the balancing wrong. With your way the reactants are
Cu:1
H:4
N:4
O:12
while the products are
Cu:1
H:4
N:4
O:10
The oxygens don't match.

[EllenRenskoff-1C]

I got 3Cu + 8HNO3 -> 3Cu(NO3)2 + 2NO + 4H2O. I balanced the copper last because it was already balanced to begin with, so I knew that whatever coefficient was in front of the carbon on the reactants side would be the same as the coefficient on the products side for Cu(NO3)2. I tried to balance the hydrogens first because they only are in one product and one reactant.

[juliaschreib1A]

Does anyone know an easier way to balance chemical equations? How do you know when and how to use fractions?

[Jocelyn1B]

Does anyone know an easier way to balance chemical equations? How do you know when and how to use fractions?

If you look at the topic "trick to balance" that may help you find an easier to way to balance the chemical equations. Hope it helps!

[Sonia Aronson 1B]

Some textbooks say an easy way is to start balancing with the element that is present in the least number of equations and to balance products/reactants that are just one element last

[CMaduno_1L]

To add to this most recent comment, an example would be in combustion reactions, where oxygen gas is always by itself on the reactant side of the chemical equation.