Ssippel’s Weblog

1.  go to the web site:  http://www.daveingram.ca/chemistry/equation1.html and complete the tutorial.

2. you may play any review games on this site after you complete the tutorial.

3.  If you have time, get a balancing equation worksheet, and go to http://education.jlab.org/elementbalancing/index.html  or http://www.webqc.org/balance.php to help you complete it.

Let’s say I ask you the following thing on a test:  (Hint Hint)”Balance the equation that takes place when sodium hydroxide reacts with sulfuric acid to form sodium sulfate and water.” How do we solve this using the steps above?

1. Get yourself an unbalanced equation. Here’s where you use your knowledge of formulas to help you out. If you know what the formula of sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid, sodium sulfate, and water are, you’d be able to write the following unbalanced equation:

2. Draw boxes around all the chemical formulas. This is the step that people frequently don’t do because they feel that it’s a waste of time and an extra step. There is a purpose to you drawing boxes around formulas. Basically, besides because “Ms Sippel Said so“, you’re drawing those boxes so that you’ll be sure not to mess around with the formulas to balance the equation.  Here’s what the equation looks like:

3. Make an element inventory. In this inventory, your job is to figure out how many atoms of each element you have on the left and right sides of the equation. Now, if you look at the equation, you should be able to see that on the left side of the equation there is one sodium atom, five oxygen atoms (one from the sodium hydroxide, four from the sulfuric acid), three hydrogen atoms (one from the sodium hydroxide, two from the sulfuric acid), and one sulfur atom. On the right side of the equation, there are two atoms of sodium, one atom of sulfur, five atoms of oxygen (four from the sodium sulfate and one from the water), and two atoms of hydrogen. Thus, your element inventory should look like this:

4. Write numbers in front of each of the boxes until the inventory for each element is the same both before and after the reaction. Now, what happens when we put a number in front of a formula? Basically, anything in that box is multiplied by that number, because we’re saying that we have that many of that kind of molecule. So, looking at the inventory, what should we do?

Well, we can see that on the left side of the inventory, there is one atom of sodium and on the right there are two. The solution: Stick a “2” in front of the sodium hydroxide on the left side of the equation so that the numbers of sodium atoms are the same on both sides of the equation. When we do this, the new atom inventory should look like this: (I’ll let you figure out how this is done)

Now what? Well, looking at the new inventory, we can see that we now have two sodium atoms on both the left and the right sides, but the others still don’t match up. What to do?

You can see from the inventory that on the right side of the equation, there are two hydrogen atoms and on the left there are four. Using your amazing powers of mathematics (and hopefully not needing to use a calculator), you can see that two multiplied by the number two becomes four. That’s what you need to do. How? Put a “2” in front of the water on the right side of the equation to make the hydrogens balance out. Now that this is done, you should make a new inventory that looks something like this:

Since both sides of the inventory match, the equation is now balanced!  All other equations will balance in exactly the same way, though it might take a few more steps in some cases.

When we write chemical equations, we need to have the formulas for the reagents on the left side (the stuff that’s going to do the chemical reaction) and the formulas for the products (the stuff you make) on the right. If we were to simply put the formulas of the chemicals on the left and right without saying how much of it was going to react, then we would run the risk of saying that the mass of what we end up with is different than the mass of what we started with.  That would be a bad thing.  The bottom line: You need to balance the equations by sticking numbers in front of the chemicals on the left and right sides of the equation, like it or not. How can you do this?   Funny you should ask….

OK. You know why you need to balance chemical equations, but you don’t yet know how to do it. It turns out that I know how to explain things in a way that almost anyone can understand it,  So, here it goes:

Listen: There are four easy steps that you need to follow to make this work. Here they are:

1. Get yourself an unbalanced equation. I might give this to you, or I might make you figure it out. Either way, if you don’t have an equation with all the chemical formulas and the arrow and all that other stuff, then you’re out of luck.

2. Draw boxes around all the chemical formulas. Never, ever, change anything inside the boxes. Ever. Really. If you do, you’re guaranteed to get the answer wrong.

3. Make an element inventory. How are you going to know if the equation is balanced if you don’t actually make a list of how many of each atom you have? You won’t. You have to make an inventory of how many atoms of each element you have, and then you have to keep it current throughout the whole problem.

4. Write numbers in front of each of the boxes until the inventory for each element is the same both before and after the reaction. Whenever you change a number, make sure to update the inventory – otherwise, you run the risk of balancing it incorrectly. When all the numbers in the inventory balance, then the equation can balance.  There you have it.  Pictures coming soon.

OK, so here is the deal….

Atoms are the basic building blocks of all types of matter. Atoms link to other atoms through chemicals bonds resulting from the strong attractive forces that exist between the atoms.

So what exactly is a chemical bond? It is a connection that forms when electrons from different atoms interact with each other. The electrons that take part in chemical bonds are the valence electrons, which are the electrons found in an atom’s outermost shell. When two atoms approach each other these outer electrons interact. Electrons repel each other, yet they are attracted to the protons within atoms. The interplay of forces results in some atoms forming bonds with each other and sticking together.

The two main types of bonds formed between atoms are ionic bonds and covalent bonds.

 An ionic bond is formed when one atom accepts or donates one or more of its valence electrons to another atom.

 A covalent bond is formed when atoms share valence electrons. In a covalent bond, electrons are shared between two atoms.

When electrons are shared by two metallic atoms a metallic bond may be formed. The electrons that participate in metallic bonds may be shared between any of the metal atoms in the region.

Does this help you to understand bonding any better?

Just something to think about while you are studying… As far as bonding goes…..

GoAnimate.com: ionic bonding by bob

http://goanimate.com/go/movie/0SfGCGkqNAfg?utm%5Fsource=gigyaembed

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It’s free and fun!

Ok folks, I have uploaded a bunch of study guides and powerpoints.  If we did something in class that you dont see here and you want copies, comment and I will get it here!  Have a great night!

GoAnimate.com: Titanium by chasecarraway

http://goanimate.com/go/movie/0CKzvUbucSjA?utm%5Fsource=gigyaembed&uid=0sLTEyuciCvY

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It’s free and fun!

GoAnimate.com: Titanium by chasecarraway

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It’s free and fun!

GoAnimate.com: Titanium by chasecarraway

http://goanimate.com/go/movie/0CKzvUbucSjA?utm%5Fsource=gigyaembed&uid=0sLTEyuciCvY

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It’s free and fun!