Question

Write down the balanced chemical equation:

Carbon plus oxygen produces carbon dioxide

Answer 1

Balanced chemical equation: A chemical equation in which the number of atoms of each element on both sides of the equation is equal is called a balanced chemical equation.

Step 1: Representation of the chemical reaction:

• Carbon reacts with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide.
• The chemical reaction can be written as:

$\underset{\mathrm{carbon}}{\mathrm{C}}+\underset{\mathrm{Oxygen}}{{\mathrm{O}}_2}\to \underset{\mathrm{Carbon}\mathrm{dioxide}}{{\mathrm{CO}}_2}$

Step 2: Calculating the number of atoms on both sides of the reaction:

Elements	Number of atoms on the reactant side	Number of atoms on the product side
C	1	1
O	2	2

Step 3: Balancing the uneven number of atoms on the reactants and products side:

1. As the number of atoms on the reactants and products side is equal, so the reaction is already in balanced form.
2. So, we can see that the balanced equation is:

$\underset{\mathrm{Carbon}}{\mathrm{C}}+\underset{\mathrm{Oxygen}}{{\mathrm{O}}_2}\to \underset{\mathrm{carbon}\mathrm{dioxide}}{{\mathrm{CO}}_2}$