In this episode, we discuss balancing chemical equations.
Chemical equations require balancing to ensure an equal count of each element's atoms on both the reactant and product sides of a reaction.
The provided example illustrates this process using the formation of water from hydrogen and oxygen.
Initially, the equation H₂ + O₂ → H₂O is unbalanced due to differing oxygen atom numbers.
Adding a water molecule (H₂ + O₂ → 2H₂O) then imbalances the hydrogen atoms.
The equation is finally balanced by adding a hydrogen molecule to the reactants, resulting in 2H₂ + O₂ → 2H₂O.
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