How can I balance this chemical equation? Sodium phosphate and calcium chloride react to form calcium phosphate and sodium chloride
This is a double replacement reaction. Here’s how to
Your unbalanced equation is
##”Na”_3″PO”_4 + “CaCl”_2 → “Ca”_3(“PO”_4)_2 + “NaCl”##
1. Start with the most complicated formula, ##”Ca”_3(“PO”_4)_2##.
Put a 1 in front of it. We have now fixed the number of ##”Ca”## atoms and ##”PO”_4## groups.
##”Na”_3″PO”_4 + “CaCl”_2 →color(red)(1)”Ca”_3(“PO”_4)_2 + “NaCl”##
2. Balance ##”Ca”##. Put a 3 in front of ##”CaCl”_2##.
##”Na”_3″PO”_4 + color(blue)(3)”CaCl”_2 → color(red)(1)”Ca”_3(“PO”_4)_2 + “NaCl”##
.
3. Balance ##”PO”_4##. Put a 2 in front of ##”Na”_3″PO”_4##.
##color(orange)(2)”Na”_3″PO”_4 + color(blue)(3)”CaCl”_2 → color(red)(1) “Ca”_3(“PO”_4)_2 + “NaCl”##
4. Balance ##”Na”##. Put a 6 in front of ##”NaCl”##.
##color(orange)(2) “Na”_3″PO”_4 + color(blue)(3) “CaCl”_2 → color(red)(1)”Ca”_3(“PO”_4)_2 + color(teal)(6) “NaCl”##
5. Every formula has a coefficient.
The equation should be balanced. Let’s check.
Left hand side: ##”6 Na; 2 PO”_4″; 3 Ca; 6 Cl”##
Right hand side: ##”3 Ca; 2 PO”_4″; 6 Na; 6 Cl”##.
Everything checks. the balanced equation is
##”2Na”_3″PO”_4 + “3CaCl”_2 → “Ca”_3(“PO”_4)_2 + “6NaCl”##