Balancing Equations

Conservation of Mass The law of conservation of mass states that mass is neither created or destroyed in a chemical reaction If you light a match, the match will get smaller. However, the match is simply being converted into an equal amount of gas particles Total mass of the reactants = Total mass of products

Conservation of Mass cont.

Balancing Chemical Equations We need to be able to show that mass between the reactant and products is conserved when we create chemical reactions This is why we balance equations

How to Balance Equations Given your reactants, create a product formula that has the same number of atoms per element in your reaction