How do you balance a simple chemical equation?

When you want to balance an equation you need to keep in mind basically the atoms on each side. You need to make sure both sides have the same amount of atoms on each so it can be balanced. To balance you just put coefficients in front of the compounds to balance it out. Sorry that's not much help but here's a link that will help!

i'm really sorry this is a really hard topic, i am in yr 11 and i had to learn it in yr 10 for my chem GCSE generally you need to have the same amount of things on each side of the arrow. Take a look at this chemical word equation: Aluminium + Oxygen (arrow) Aluminium Oxide This is the equation for the chemical names with the appropriate symbols: Al + O2 (arrow) Al2O3 (the 2 and 3 are small) one the left side we have: 1 aluminium and 2 oxygens, this is shown by the numbers = 3 atoms on the rigth side we have: 2 aluminiums and 3 oxygens = 5 atoms to balance this equation we need to add numbers to the begining of the elements (Al etc) we can't add little numbers to the end of the elements as this would change the chemical formula of the element. so to balance this equatiuon we need to add 3 numbers, one before each of the elements add a 4 before the Al add a 3 before the O2 and add a 2 before the Al2O3 this will then make it all equal hint: the number before the element needs to be multiplyed by the little number at the end i really hopes this helps, good luck if u need more help check out this website http://richardbowles.tripod.com/chemistry/balance.htm#part1

i'm really sorry this is a really hard topic, i am in yr 11 and i had to learn it in yr 10 for my chem GCSE generally you need to have the same amount of things on each side of the arrow. Take a look at this chemical word equation: Aluminium + Oxygen (arrow) Aluminium Oxide This is the equation for the chemical names with the appropriate symbols: Al + O2 (arrow) Al2O3 (the 2 and 3 are small) one the left side we have: 1 aluminium and 2 oxygens, this is shown by the numbers = 3 atoms on the rigth side we have: 2 aluminiums and 3 oxygens = 5 atoms to balance this equation we need to add numbers to the begining of the elements (Al etc) we can't add little numbers to the end of the elements as this would change the chemical formula of the element. so to balance this equatiuon we need to add 3 numbers, one before each of the elements add a 4 before the Al add a 3 before the O2 and add a 2 before the Al2O3 this will then make it all equal hint: the number before the element needs to be multiplyed by the little number at the end i really hopes this helps, good luck if u need more help check out this website http://richardbowles.tripod.com/chemistry/balance.htm#part1