Chemical Equations--how to begin.

Howdy!

We are now going to begin learning how to actually create chemical equations. Think of it like baking chocolate chip cookies.  You begin with the ingredients:

---Butter
---Flour
---Sugar
---Eggs
---Chocolate Chips

Remember that we can call these the REACTANTS.

By themselves all of these ingredients are rather boring right!? (Except for the chocolate chips of course)
But....once you mix them up and add a bit of heat, suddenly you get some deliciousness called cookies.  The cookies that we create would be considered the PRODUCTS

Now unless you have been making cookies for a VERY long time you still need a list of the steps to make it, the recipe.  In science terms we call this the CHEMICAL EQUATION 

When the dough is in the oven, the changes that take place (cooking) that turn the dough into cookies can be thought of as the CHEMICAL REACTION.

Enough with the cookies...it is making me hungry.  On with the science!!!

When two or more elements or molecules (lets use Nitrogen (N) and Oxygen (O) as our examples), mix and change into something else, we call this the CHEMICAL REACTION.

The way in which they mix is called the CHEMICAL EQUATION.

We can write the chemical equation with symbols or words.  With our example it looks like this

With WORDS:     nitrogen monoxide + oxygen  -->  nitrogen dioxide

In SYMBOLS:     2NO (g)   +   O2 (g)    -->  2NO2 (g)

Whooo...Take a deep breath. That is a lot of stuff going on.  One step at a time.  With the symbol equation the (g) means that the (NO and O2) is in a gas form. There are other symbols such as (l) meaning liquid, and (s) for solid.

Second.  A reaction took place here.  We combine two gasses (nitrogen monoxide and oxygen) together, say in a jar, and a CHEMICAL REACTION took place, creating a whole new gas called nitrogen dioxide.

This new gas is actually an air pollutant which is a big part of smog in cities.  Blech.

Alright. So you can see that there are large and small numbers next to the element or compounds in the equation above.

You should already be familiar with the small number, say in O2
To refresh your memory, the 2 refers to the number of oxygen atoms in the molecule.

The big numbers say in 2NO (g) refers to the number of molecules involved in the reaction.  So there are 2 N and 2 O.

When balancing equations you need to remember that how many letters you have on one side, you must have the same on the other.

Let's take a moment and see how it is done!


Here is another version taught by a teacher.  Have a look.


So this is what you are going to do now.  Please go to the link below and practice balancing equations. Be sure to start easy and work your way up.


Balancing Equation Game!

If you don't have access to a computer right now, go to your workbook and work on page 77. Be sure to read the rules on page 76 first though...

You need to work on this for today (Monday) and tomorrow (Tuesday).

Have fun!