4. What is a balanced chemical equation? Why should chemical equations be balanced?
Answers
The representation of a chemical reaction in the form of substances is known as a chemical equation. The equation in which the number of atoms of all the molecules is equal on both sides of the equation is known as a balanced chemical equation. Law of conservation of mass governs the balancing of a chemical equation
Explanation:
To balance a reaction means to make the number of atoms the same on both the reactants and products side. To do so, coefficients need to be added to the chemical equation.
A chemical equation needs to be balanced because a chemical reaction is just a rearrangement of atoms. Atoms themselves are neither created nor destroyed during the course of a chemical reaction. The chemical equation needs to be balanced to follow the law of conservation of mass.