Question

On what basis is a chemical equation balanced?

Answer 1

A chemical equation is called the representation of a chemical reaction in the form of substances. A balanced chemical equation is known as an equation in which the number of atoms of all molecules is equal on both sides of the equation. The stoichiometry helps us to calculate the mass of reactants required to form the products.

Complete Step-by-Step solution
Law of conservation of mass governs the balancing of a chemical equation. According to this law, in a chemical reaction, mass can neither be generated nor destroyed, and the total mass of the elements or molecules present on the reactant side should be equal to the total mass of the elements or molecules present on the product side. The law of conservation is not applicable if the chemical equation is not balanced.
We can also say that because of the law of conservation of mass, the number of atoms on the left-hand side of a chemical equation must be equal to the number of atoms on the right-hand side of a chemical equation.
Hence, the law of conservation of mass governs the balancing of a chemical equation.

Additional Information:
With the aid of the ' $+$ ' symbol in a chemical equation, multiple entities on either side of the reaction symbols described above are separated from each other. It can be noted that the ' $\to$ ' symbol is often read as 'gives rise to' or 'yields' when used in a chemical equation.

Note:
Chemical equations are symbolic representations of chemical reactions which are expressed in terms of their respective chemical formulae by reactants and products. They also use symbols to represent factors such as the reaction's direction and the reacting entities' physical states.