Need Help in Balancing Chemical Equations (1 Viewer)

[Cathy123]

I don like chemistry. I feel very bore of it.

Tomorrow i need to submit an assignment on balancing chemical equations.

I have been given the equation,

C3H8+O2=H2O +CO2

I used an online chemical equation balancer, to find and balanced the equation.

C3H8 + 5O2 → 4H2O + 3CO2.

But still, i dont have complete knowledge on it, expecting help from a genious to verify it and explain.

 

[InteGrand]

Either do it by inspection, or place a constant in front of each species in the equation (you can let the first one be 1), then read off how many of each element is present on each side of the chemical equation, equate, and solve the resulting linear system.

 

[Silly Sausage]

There is really no direct "verification" on how to balance equations, you just need to practice it a lot more and you will get the hang of it.
The program you used probably used an Gauss-Jordan algorithm to balance it, which is generally considered university maths.

 

[porcupinetree]

For these type of hydrocarbon questions, I usually start with balancing carbon, then do hydrogen, and always do oxygen last. I don't know if that helps but that's what I always do

 

[gz_HSCTUTOR]

Hey man,

So it is actually really easy. The method I provide my students is:

1. Always imagine the scenario the chemical reaction is occuring.

- In your case, the reaction between propane and oxygen is during high temperature conditions. During these high temp. conditions the oxygen reacts with propane as it 'burns' it, allowing the hydrogen to seperate from the carbon. Furthermore, you can think of propane and oxygen breaking into its ions. These ions then react with oxygen to form CO2 and H2O. The reason why H2O occurs is because in all reactions the atoms are not all affected in the same way and it really is based on probability. That is why you can also form CO (Carbon monoxide) in alkane combustion reactions.

2. The situation the reaction occurs is what ultimately forms the type of state of the products.

- In the products for your reaction we get gases for both molecules due to the high temperatures.

3. Balancing the equations is just pure practise. At the end of the day it is basic math so if you balanced 20 or so equations then you should be a pro at it!

I hope that helped!

If you're having trouble with other things you can visit my website for the blog for extra help! I will be writing up something at least once a week so stay tuned!

http://hscsynergyeducation.weebly.com/blog