Chemical World Chemical Reactions

The language of chemical equations

Balancing a chemical equation
Step 1: Start with the word equation and
name all of the reactants and products
Step 2: Replace the words in the word
equation with formulae and rewrite the
equation
Step 3: Count the number of atoms of
each element on both sides

Step 4: If not balanced, coefficients need

to be added in order to balance the
equation
Step 5: Add physical state symbols

Methane gas + oxygen gas carbon dioxide + water

CH4 + O2 CO2 + H2O

Element
Reactants
Products
C
1
1
H
4
2
O
2
3
To balance the hydrogen, put a 2 in front of H2O:

CH4 + O2 CO2 + 2H2O

To balance the oxygen atoms, add 2 in front of O2:

CH4 + 2O2 CO2 + 2H2O

CH4(g) + 2O2(g) CO2(g) + 2H2O(g)

Hot and cold changes

When chemical reactions take place, effect of energy changes seen as a change in temperature

Bringing on the heat

Exothermic reactions that give out heat