Question

Question #10cd1

Answer 1

The equation is not balanced. Lets look at how you can tell...

The underlying principle here is the Law of Conservation of Matter. Since matter cannot be created nor destroyed, there must be the same number of atoms of each element before the reaction as there are after the reaction.Looking at your equation, `2NaCl -> Na + Cl_2` you can see there are 2 atoms of Na and 2 atoms of Cl on the left side of the arrow while there is one atom of Na and 2 atoms of Cl on the right. This inequality of the Na atoms tells you that it is unbalanced.

In order to balance it, there must be more Na represented on the right hand side. To show more Na, you may only change the coefficient in front of it. By changing it to be a 2 instead of a 1, the equation now looks like this... `2NaCl -> 2Na + Cl_2`. By recounting the atoms present, you can now see there are two atoms of Na and 2 atoms of Cl on each side of the arrow.

I am not sure if you needed to actually balance it or not, but hope this helps.