Question

52. Balance the following equation. Also name the products formed.
$\mathrm{Ag}+\mathrm{S}\to {\mathrm{Ag}}_2\mathrm{S}$

Answer 1

Step 1:- List the number of atoms of different element present in the unbalanced equation

The given chemical equation is as follows:

Element	Number of atoms in reactant	Number of atom in product
Ag	1	2
S	1	1

Step 2:- Start balancing with the compound that contains maximum number of atoms (reactant or product)

• In this equation, AgS is having maximum number of atom and after that check which element have maximum number of atoms.
• There Silver (Ag) having maximum number of atom. check if it balanced or not means number of atom is equal to the number of reactant.

Atoms of Silver(Ag)	In reactant	In product
Initial	2 (in Ag)	2 (in Ag2S) = 2 silver atoms
Final (Balanced)	1 x 2 (in Ag)	2 (in Ag2S)= 2 silver atoms

Now Silver is balanced.

Step 3:- Balance the other atoms present in the equation

• Sulphur (S) is 1 in LHS and in RHS is 1. so it is balanced.
• To equalize the number of atoms we can only add coefficients for e.g. “2Ag” instead of “Ag₂ on reactant side”

Therefore, the balanced chemical equation is:

$\underset{\mathbf{Silver}}{\mathbf{2}\mathbf{Ag}}\mathbf{}\mathbf{+}\mathbf{}\underset{\mathbf{Sulphur}}{\mathbf{S}}\mathbf{\to }\underset{\mathbf{Silver}\mathbf{}\mathbf{sulphide}}{{\mathbf{Ag}}_{\mathbf{2}}\mathbf{S}}$

Thus, the product formed in the reaction is silver sulphide (Ag₂S).