Question

* Please Help *

A chemical equation conveys information about a chemical reaction. Why is it important to make sure that chemical equations are balanced and why should you not alter the identities of the substances involved when you balance an equation? How would an unbalanced chemical equation convey misleading information about what took place during a chemical reaction?

Answer 1

In order to for a chemical equation to be useful, you have to balance it to see the ratio. Once you have a balanced chemical equation, you can use the ratio for conversion.

For instance: 2 H2 + O2 = 2 H2O. The ratio here would be 2 molecules H2 = 1 molecule O2 = 2 molecules H2O.

So if you had 3 moles of O2, you could convert it to, let's say, moles of H2O.

1 mole O2 = 2 moles H2O

3 * 2 = 6 moles H2O.

From chemical reaction, you can know a lot if thing. for example : the mass and etc.
If you didnt balnced it well, you might get the mass used wrong.

if you're equation is wrong is wrong. The data collected will be wrong too.

Answer 2

If you do not balance the equation, you can never see how much of each substance reacts.
When unbalanced, these reactions do not work out on paper and in yields.

Also, atoms are NOT created or destroyed in a chemical reaction. Hence, you need to balance them.