Question

What information does a balanced equation convey?

Answer 1

A balanced chemical equation is one in which the number of atoms on the reactant side is equal to the number of atoms on the product side. This means that it follows the law of conservation of mass.

There are two types of information that a balanced equation provides:

Qualitative information:

1. The reactants: names of the raw material that take part in the reaction are mentioned in the chemical equation.
2. The products: names of the new substance that is obtained from the reaction are mentioned in the chemical equation.

Quantitative information:

1. The number of reactants and products is mentioned in the chemical equation.
2. The moles and mass of the reactant and product can also be inferred by looking at a chemical equation.
3. Mass-mass, mass-volume, and volume-volume relationships between reactants and products can also be found.
4. The phases of the reactant and product are also mentioned in the chemical equation.

For example:

$$\begin{gathered} 2{\mathrm{H}}_2\left(\mathrm{g}\right)+{\mathrm{O}}_2\left(\mathrm{g}\right)\to 2{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\left(\mathrm{l}\right) \\ \left(\mathrm{Hydrogen}\right)\left(\mathrm{Oxygen}\right)\left(\mathrm{water}\right) \\ \mathrm{REACTANTS}\mathrm{PRODUCTS} \end{gathered}$$