Question

Write the balanced chemical equation for the following reaction:
$Sodium\,chloride+Potassium\,sulphate\to Barium\,sulphate+Potassium\,chloride$

Answer 1

In order to balance the chemical equations, the number of atoms of each specific element on the reactant side should be equal to the number of elements of that element on the product side too.

Complete step by step answer:
- In order to answer our question, we need to learn about the laws of chemical combination. Now, we know that in any chemical reaction, energy can neither be created nor destroyed. The same applies to mass. Mass remains constant, i.e total mass of the reactants is equal to the mass of the products. Also, no new element can suddenly come out in the reaction. For example in the reaction of ${{H}_{2}}$ and ${{O}_{2}}$ to form ${{H}_{2}}O$, the only elements present are hydrogen and water. No new element like nitrogen has entered the reaction. Moreover, the number of atoms of each element should be the same in the reactant and the product side. Now, let us write the skeletal equation, and then we will check for the number of atoms:
$BaC{{l}_{2}}+{{K}_{2}}S{{O}_{4}}\to BaS{{O}_{4}}+KCl$
- Clearly, there is an imbalance of atoms of potassium and chlorine. However, this can be rectified by multiplying $KCl$ by a factor of 2 and then we get the chemical reaction as:
$BaC{{l}_{2}}+{{K}_{2}}S{{O}_{4}}\to BaS{{O}_{4}}+2KCl$
- This is the final balanced reaction as we can see that number of elements of an atom of each element are equal, both on the reactant side as well as on the product side. Hence, we obtain the required answer for the question.

Note: If we multiply the balanced chemical reactions by a constant throughout, even then the reaction remains balanced. For example, we can also write the above reaction as:
$2BaC{{l}_{2}}+2{{K}_{2}}S{{O}_{4}}\to 2BaS{{O}_{4}}+4KCl$
This is also a balanced chemical reaction.