Question

Balance the following equation:

$\mathrm{Fe}+{\mathrm{O}}_2\to {\mathrm{Fe}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_3$

Answer 1

Balanced equation: the chemical equation in which the number of atoms of each element on the reactant side as well as the product side is equal are known as a balanced equation.

Balancing the following chemical equation:

$\mathrm{Fe}+{\mathrm{O}}_2\to {\mathrm{Fe}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_3$

Steps to balance the chemical equation:

• Count the number of atoms of each element on either side. Now first balance the compound with the maximum number of atoms

A number of atoms of each element on the reactant side:

Fe = 1 O = 2

A number of atoms of each element on the product side:

Fe = 2 O = 3

• As the number of oxygen and iron is not equal on both the reactant and product sides so we will first multiply oxygen by three and iron by 4 on the reactant side. The reaction becomes:

$4\mathrm{Fe}+3{\mathrm{O}}_2\to {\mathrm{Fe}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_3$

• Now multiply ${\mathrm{Fe}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_3$by 2 so as to balance the reaction

$\underset{\mathrm{iron}}{4\mathrm{Fe}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{oxygen}}{3{\mathrm{O}}_2\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{iron}\mathrm{oxide}}{2{\mathrm{Fe}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_3\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}$

Thus in the above equation, the no. of iron and oxygen atoms are equal on both sides. Hence it is a balanced equation.