NCERT Class 10 Science Textbook made Screen Readable by Raunak Padhi from USA and Dr T K Bansal.

Activity 1.1 can be described as:
when a magnesium ribbon is burnt in oxygen, it gets converted to magnesium oxide. This description of a chemical reaction in sentence form is quite long. It can be written in a shorter form. The simplest way to do this is to write it in the form of a word equation. The word-equation for the above reaction would be -

Magnesium + Oxygen →(gives) Magnesium oxide .. .. .. (1.1)

The substances that undergo chemical change in the reaction (1.1), magnesium and oxygen, are the reactants. The new substance is magnesium oxide, formed during the reaction, as a product. A word-equation shows change of reactants to products through an rightwards arrow placed between them. The reactants are written on the left-hand side (LHS) with a plus sign between them. Similarly, products are written on the right-hand side (RHS) with a plus sign between them. The arrowhead points towards the products, and shows the direction of the reaction.

1.1.1 Writing a Chemical Equation

Is there any other shorter way for representing chemical equations? Chemical equations can be made more concise and useful if we use chemical formulae instead of words. A chemical equation represents a chemical reaction. If you recall formulae of magnesium, oxygen and magnesium oxide, the above word-equation can be written as -

$$Mg + O_2 → MgO .. .. .. (1.2)$$

Count and compare the number of atoms of each element on the LHS and on the RHS of the arrow. Is the number of atoms of each element the same on both sides? If yes, then the equation is said to be balanced. If not, then the equation is not balanced because the mass is not the same on both sides of the equation. Such a chemical equation is a skeletal chemical equation for a reaction. Equation (1.2) is a skeletal chemical equation for the burning of magnesium in air.

1.1.2 Balanced Chemical Equations

Recall the law of conservation of mass that you studied in Class 9;

Mass can neither be created nor be destroyed in a chemical reaction.

That is, the total mass of the elements present in the products of a chemical reaction has to be equal to the total mass of the elements present in the reactants. In other words, the number of atoms of each element remains the same, before and after a chemical reaction. Hence, we need to balance a skeletal chemical equation. Is the chemical Equation (1.2) balanced?

Let us learn about balancing a chemical equation step by step.

The word-equation for Activity 1.3 may be represented as

Zinc + Sulphuric acid →(gives) Zinc sulphate + Hydrogen

The above word-equation may be represented by the following chemical equation -

$$Zn + H_2SO_4 → ZnSO_4 + H_2 .. .. .. (1.3)$$

Let us examine the number of atoms of different elements on both sides of the arrow in a table.

As the number of atoms of each element is the same on both the sides of the arrow, equation (1.3) is a balanced chemical equation.

Let us try to balance the following chemical equation

$$Fe + H_2O → Fe_3O_4 + H_2 .. .. .. (1.4)$$

Step 1:
To balance a chemical equation, first draw boxes around each formula. Do not change anything inside the brackets while balancing the equation.

$$[Fe] + [H_2O] → [Fe_3O_4] + [H_2] .. .. .. (1.5)$$

Step 2:
List the number of atoms of different elements present in the unbalanced equation (1.5).

Step 3:
It is often convenient to start balancing with the compound that contains the maximum number of atoms. It may be a reactant or a product. In that compound, select the element which has the maximum number of atoms. Using these criteria, we select Fe3O4 and the element oxygen in it. There are four oxygen atoms on the RHS and only one on the LHS.

To balance the oxygen atoms -
In order to balance the oxygen atoms, we count the atoms of oxygen on each side of the equation.

To equalise the number of atoms, it must be remembered that we cannot alter the formulae of the compounds or elements involved in the reactions. For example, to balance oxygen atoms we can put coefficient ‘4’ as 4 H2O and not H2O4 or (H2O)4. Now the partly balanced equation becomes:

$$[Fe] + 4[H_2O] → [Fe_3O_4] + [H_2] .. .. .. (1.6)$$

This is a partly balanced equation

Step 4:
Fe and H atoms are still not balanced. Pick any of these elements to proceed further. Let us balance hydrogen atoms in the partly balanced equation. To equalise the number of H atoms, make the number of molecules of hydrogen as four on the RHS.

The equation would be:

$$[Fe] + 4[H_2O] → [Fe_3O_4] + 4[H_2] .. .. .. (1.7)$$

This is still a partly balanced equation

Step 5:
Examine the above equation and pick up the third element which is not balanced. You find that only one element is left to be balanced, that is, iron.

To equalise Fe, we take three atoms of Fe on the LHS.

$$3[Fe] + 4[H_2O] → [Fe_3O_4] + 4[H_2]$$

Step 6:
Finally, to check the correctness of the balanced equation, we count atoms of each element on both sides of the equation.

$$3Fe +4H_2O → Fe_3O_4 + 4H_2 .. .. .. (1.9)$$

This is a balanced equation.

The numbers of atoms of elements on both sides of equation 1.9 are equal. This equation is now balanced. This method of balancing chemical equations is called hit-and-trial method as we make trials to balance the equation by using the smallest whole number coefficient.

Step 7:
Writing Symbols of Physical States

Carefully examine the above balanced equation 1.9. Does this equation tell us anything about the physical state of each reactant and product? No information has been given in this equation about their physical states.

To make a chemical equation more informative, the physical states of the reactants and products are mentioned along with their chemical formulae. The gaseous, liquid, aqueous and solid states of reactants and products are represented by the notations (g), (l), (aq) and (s), respectively. The word aqueous, or aq, is written if the reactant or product is present as a solution in water. The balanced equation 1.9 becomes:

$$3Fe (s) + 4H_2O (g) → Fe_3O_4 (s) + 4 H_2 (g) .. .. .. (1.10)$$

Note that the symbol (g) is used with H₂O to indicate that in this reaction, water is used in the form of steam.

Usually physical states are not included in a chemical equation unless it is necessary to specify them.

Sometimes the reaction conditions, such as temperature, pressure, catalyst, etc., for the reaction are indicated above and/or below the arrow in the equation. For example:

$$CO (g) + 2 H_2 (g) 340 atm → C(H_3)OH (l) .. .. .. (1.11)$$

$$6CO_2 (aq) + 12H_2O (l) sunlight Chlorophyll → C_6H_{12}O_6 (aq) + 6O_2 (aq) + 6H_2 (l) .. .. .. (Equation 1.12)$$

C₆H₁₂O₆ is glucose

Using these steps, can you balance equation 1.2 given in the text earlier?

Questions:

Q1. Why should a magnesium ribbon be cleaned before burning in air?

Q2. Write the balanced equation for the following chemical reactions.
a. Hydrogen + Chlorine equals Hydrogen chloride
b. Barium chloride + Aluminium sulphate equals Barium sulphate + Aluminium chloride

Q3. Write a balanced chemical equation with state symbols for the following reactions.
a. Solutions of barium chloride and sodium sulphate in water react to give insoluble barium sulphate and the solution of sodium chloride.
b. Sodium hydroxide solution in water reacts with hydrochloric acid solution in water to produce sodium chloride solution and water.