Download Balancing Chemical Equations

Balancing Chemical
Equations
Science 10
Word Equation

Every chemical reaction can be
presented as a word equation. The word
equation will then be used to build a
skeleton equation and finally a balanced
chemical equation

Hydrogen gas reacts with oxygen gas to
form water
Skeleton Equation

An unbalanced equation is developed
from the word equation:
Hydrogen gas reacts with oxygen gas to
form water
 __H2 + __O2  __H2O

Balanced Equation

The balanced equation is produced
using the lowest possible ratio in front of
each element or compound to have the
same number and type of atoms on each
side
Hydrogen gas reacts with oxygen gas to
form water (word)
 __H2 + __O2  __H2O (skeleton)
 2 H2 + 1 O2  2 H2O (balanced)

MINOH

A standard approach can be helpful in
balancing chemical equations
 The MINOH method provides the order in
which elements will be considered when
balancing an chemical equation





M – metals
I – polyatomic ions
N – non-metals (except oxygen and hydrogen)
O – oxygen
H - hydrogen
Balancing

M
I
N
O
H
2 2 + __O2  __H
2 2O
__H
O- 2
H- 24
O -12
H - 24
Balancing

M
I
N
O
H
__H2SO4 + __NaOH
 __H
2
2 2O +__Na2SO4
Na SO4 –
O–
H-
1 2
1
1 2
3 4
Na SO4 –
O–
H-
2
1
12
24
Balancing

M
I
N
O
H
__C3H8 + __O
5 2  __CO
3
4 2O
2 +__H
C- 3
O – 2 10
H–8
C- 13
O – 3 7 10
H –2 8
Practice Problems

MINOH Practice Sheet

Problems 1-20