Write a balanced net ionic equation for the following reaction. H3PO4(aq)+Ca(OH)2(aq)-Ca3(PO4)2(aq)+H2O(l)

Question

Write a balanced net ionic equation for the following reaction.  H3PO4(aq)+Ca(OH)2(aq)->Ca3(PO4)2(aq)+H2O(l)

jfraser · Answer

what you've got is a $molecular$ equation, it shows the reactants and products as if they were whole molecules. Because they are (aq), they are dissolved in water and will split into their separate ions.

Take all the aqueous formulas and split them into their ions, and rewrite the equation

anonymous · Answer

So I'd start that by separating all the parts that have the (aq) next to them?

jfraser · Answer

yes

jfraser · Answer

that will get you the $complete$ ionic equation. then you should see that there are lots of like terms that can cancel out, like in an algebraic equation

anonymous · Answer

Oh, geez, I suck at algebra... So I take H3PO4(aq)+Ca(OH)2(aq)->Ca3(PO4)2(aq)+H2O(l) 
then change it to...  Wait, I'm still confused.  How do you go about doing that?

jfraser · Answer

to split up $H_3PO_4(aq)$ would look like this: $3H^{+1}(aq) + PO_4^{-3}(aq)$

jfraser · Answer

each H+ is only a +1 charge, so there have to be 3 of them in the formula to balance the -3 charge from the phosphate