Question

Balance the following equations.
$\mathrm{HgO}\to \mathrm{Hg}+{\mathrm{O}}_2$

Answer 1

Balanced chemical equation -

• A chemical equation is said to be balanced if the number of atoms of each element on the left-hand side is equal to the number of atoms present on the right-hand side.
• In order to balance a chemical equation, it is required to know what are reactants that are taking part in a chemical reaction and what are products will be formed.

Balancing a chemical equation-

Using Hit by trial method

$\mathrm{HgO}\to \mathrm{Hg}+{\mathrm{O}}_2$

Elements	Number of atoms on reactant side	Number of atoms on product side
Hg	1	1
O	1	2

1. To balance O, put coefficient 2 on the left-hand side. $2\mathrm{HgO}\to \mathrm{Hg}+{\mathrm{O}}_2$
2. On doing the above step, so as to balance the number of Hg atoms, put the coefficient 2 on the right-hand side. $2\mathrm{HgO}\to 2\mathrm{Hg}+{\mathrm{O}}_2$
3. Hence, the balanced chemical equation is $2\mathrm{HgO}\to 2\mathrm{Hg}+{\mathrm{O}}_2$