BALANCING EQUATIONS

Lorraine Pettigrew             George Washington High School
                               3535 East 114th Street
                               Chicago, IL 60617
                               1-312-646-4860
    
OBJECTIVES:  
     To learn to balance simple equations by the trial and error method. 
   
MATERIALS:   1 inch paper squares

STRATEGIES:
     Divide an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper into 1" squares. Label with symbols as 
shown below: 
     You should end up with the following numbers of squares:

      8 - Mg, Na                      20 - O
     16 - H                            8 - N, P, S, C

     Another set of strips should be cut in sets of double squares and lettered as 
below. 


                            Use    6 O2
                                   6 H2

     Balance the equations using the squares you made to represent the atoms in 
the equations below.  Make the number of each atom on the left equal to the number 
of the same atoms on the right. 
    

    Calculations

     Insert the coefficients on the lines
 
    1. ___ Mg  + ___O2   =  ___MgO

    2. ___H2O  +  ___N2O3  =  ___HNO3

    3. ___Na  + ___H2O  =  ___NaOH  +  ___H2

    4. ___P2O5  +  ___H2O  =  ___H3PO4

    5. ___CS2   + ___O2  =  ___CO2  + ___SO2


For a web based lesson go to http://funbasedlearning.com/chemistry/chemBalancer/default.htm 
and print out the worksheet.  (Answers for the worksheet are at http://funbasedlearning.com/lessons/equationbalancing.htm)