Balancing Equations

• Balancing chemical equations


  1. Identify reactants and products

  2. Check if atoms are balanced on both sides

  3. Adjust coefficients to balance atoms

  4. Write balanced equation
• Balancing equations is an important skill for GCSE chemistry
• Doing lots of practice is key to getting good at balancing equations
• Word equation


  Represents a chemical reaction using words instead of chemical formulas
• Symbol equation


  Represents a chemical reaction using chemical formulas and symbols
• Word equations cannot be balanced, only symbol equations can be balanced
• Unbalanced equation


  When the number of atoms on the reactant and product sides are not equal
• Steps to balance an equation

  1. Draw a line to separate reactants and products

  2. List the elements on each side

  3. Adjust coefficients to balance atoms

  4. Write the balanced equation
• Cannot add subscripts to change the chemical formula
• Must add large coefficients in front of the formulas to balance the equation
• Balancing equations requires practice to get good at it