Help with Quickest way to Balance Equatons

[Dieumerci]

Hi everyone. Can someone please help me with some kinda tip on how to balance chemical equations quickly? I use to know something about starting with the Oxygens or Hydrogens first... something like that. but can't quite remember. Balancing equations takes me a while and I wish to reverse that.

Thanks

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[Jepstein30]

Hi everyone. Can someone please help me with some kinda tip on how to balance chemical equations quickly? I use to know something about starting with the Oxygens or Hydrogens first... something like that. but can't quite remember. Balancing equations takes me a while and I wish to reverse that.

Thanks

Practice.. this is something that shouldn't be an issue.

I personally start with the rarest atoms first (i.e. not Carbon, Oxygen or Hydrogen) since those will be the hardest to balance if you leave for the end, only so many ways to add/remove those atoms from the reaction.

Then work towards the more common atoms, which should fall into place. MCAT doesn't really require you to balance any nasty reactions (no redox, I would assume). Most will be a simple step or two.

 

[xGeorgettex]

I tend to write out the number of each atom appearing on each side to keep track of my math. From there, speed is all about practice.

Would look like this:

_C6H12O2 + _O2 --> _CO2 + _H20
6C............................1C
12H..........................3O
4O............................2H

*Balance the atoms appearing in only one species first [Here: Carbon first, so 1C6H12O2 and 6CO2]
*Rebalance the numbers under each reaction side [6C, 12 H, 4O --> 6C, 13O, 2H]
*Repeat step one [Hydrogen second, so, again, 1C6H12O2 and 6H2O]
*Rebalance again [6C, 12 H, 4O --> 6C, 18O, 12H]
*Continue with atoms appearing in more than one species [Oxygen last]

Dunno if that helps, but it works out better than random number plugging for me. Pretty quick after a few practice tries too.

 

[Dieumerci]

Practice.. this is something that shouldn't be an issue.

I personally start with the rarest atoms first (i.e. not Carbon, Oxygen or Hydrogen) since those will be the hardest to balance if you leave for the end, only so many ways to add/remove those atoms from the reaction.

Then work towards the more common atoms, which should fall into place. MCAT doesn't really require you to balance any nasty reactions (no redox, I would assume). Most will be a simple step or two.

Just knowing that I don't need to start with the CHO's first thus help me. Thank you for ur input

 

[Dieumerci]

I tend to write out the number of each atom appearing on each side to keep track of my math. From there, speed is all about practice.

Would look like this:

_C6H12O2 + _O2 --> _CO2 + _H20
6C............................1C
12H..........................3O
4O............................2H

*Balance the atoms appearing in only one species first [Here: Carbon first, so 1C6H12O2 and 6CO2]
*Rebalance the numbers under each reaction side [6C, 12 H, 4O --> 6C, 13O, 2H]
*Repeat step one [Hydrogen second, so, again, 1C6H12O2 and 6H2O]
*Rebalance again [6C, 12 H, 4O --> 6C, 18O, 12H]
*Continue with atoms appearing in more than one species [Oxygen last]

Dunno if that helps, but it works out better than random number plugging for me. Pretty quick after a few practice tries too.

Thanks for this method 🙂 Yeah It does look lengthy at first glance but I am willing to practice and at least have a systematic approach towards tackling any equations thrown at me

 

[Jepstein30]

Thanks for this method 🙂 Yeah It does look lengthy at first glance but I am willing to practice and at least have a systematic approach towards tackling any equations thrown at me

Practice with that but probably better off developing a faster method because this would be time intensive. Keep in mind that questions that require you to balance reactions most likely have another component to it, they don't just ask you to balance usually.. so you don't want to be spending 2x the amount of time on a question like that and short yourself elsewhere.

 

[xGeorgettex]

Practice with that but probably better off developing a faster method because this would be time intensive. Keep in mind that questions that require you to balance reactions most likely have another component to it, they don't just ask you to balance usually.. so you don't want to be spending 2x the amount of time on a question like that and short yourself elsewhere.

Yeah, I know it definitely seems time intensive at first, but it's really only for times when I can nearly instantly figure out coefficients. I can crank this out in like 15 seconds or so, so it's not nearly so bad as the figure makes it look, I promise. Hah.