Question

Write balanced chemical equations for the following reactions:

$\mathrm{Zinc}+\mathrm{Silver}\mathrm{nitrate}\to \mathrm{Zinc}\mathrm{nitrate}+\mathrm{Silver}$

Answer 1

Balanced chemical equation: A balanced chemical equation is the representation of a chemical reaction in which the number of atoms of each element is the same on both the reactant and product sides.

Word equation to symbolic equation:

• In the given reaction, zinc reacts with silver nitrate to form Zinc nitrate and silver.
• The chemical reaction can be represented as:

$\underset{\mathrm{Zinc}}{\mathrm{Zn}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Silver}\mathrm{nitrate}}{{\mathrm{AgNO}}_3\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{Zinc}\mathrm{nitrate}}{\mathrm{Zn}{\left({\mathrm{NO}}_3\right)}_2\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Silver}}{\mathrm{Ag}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}$

Balancing the Chemical Equation:

Step 1: Write the number of atoms of each element

$\underset{\mathrm{Zinc}}{\mathrm{Zn}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Silver}\mathrm{nitrate}}{{\mathrm{AgNO}}_3\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{Zinc}\mathrm{nitrate}}{\mathrm{Zn}{\left({\mathrm{NO}}_3\right)}_2\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Silver}}{\mathrm{Ag}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}$

Element	Reactant side	Product Side
$\mathrm{Zn}$	$1$	$1$
$\mathrm{O}$	$3$	$6$
$\mathrm{Ag}$	$1$	$1$
$\mathrm{N}$	$1$	$2$

• From the table, it is clear that the Atoms of Nitrogen and Oxygen are not balanced.

Step 2: Balancing the unbalanced atoms

• In order to balance the equation, we will make the coefficient of ${\mathrm{AgNO}}_3$ and $\mathrm{Ag}$ as $2$.
• Now the equation becomes

$\underset{\mathrm{Zinc}}{\mathrm{Zn}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Silver}\mathrm{nitrate}}{2{\mathrm{AgNO}}_3\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{Zinc}\mathrm{nitrate}}{\mathrm{Zn}{\left({\mathrm{NO}}_3\right)}_2\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Silver}}{2\mathrm{Ag}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}$

Element	Reactant side	Product Side
$\mathrm{Zn}$	$1$	$1$
$\mathrm{O}$	$6$	$6$
$\mathrm{Ag}$	$2$	$2$
$\mathrm{N}$	$2$	$2$

Hence, the balanced chemical equation is $\underset{\mathrm{Zinc}}{\mathrm{Zn}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Silver}\mathrm{nitrate}}{2{\mathrm{AgNO}}_3\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}\to \underset{\mathrm{Zinc}\mathrm{nitrate}}{\mathrm{Zn}{\left({\mathrm{NO}}_3\right)}_2\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{Silver}}{2\mathrm{Ag}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}$