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tricky balancing EQ

Submitted by Anonymous on 16 September 2005 - 11:27pm.

I'm usually good at these, but this one has me stumped!
C4H9OH becomes CO2+H2O

*I started with the most complicated and got

C4H9OH becomes 4CO2+5H2O

But now I can't balance out the 11 oxygen on the right side without mucking the whole thing up.
I know I've hit the same sort of problem before. Is there a general strategy that can solve these kinds of problems when you can't balance one side without making it worse on the other?

(Thanks for the help, I'm new here)

Jobradfield

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Re: tricky balancing EQ

Submitted by Anonymous on 17 September 2005 - 7:45pm.

joradfield wrote:
I'm usually good at these, but this one has me stumped!
C4H9OH becomes CO2+H2O

*I started with the most complicated and got

C4H9OH becomes 4CO2+5H2O

But now I can't balance out the 11 oxygen on the right side without mucking the whole thing up.
I know I've hit the same sort of problem before. Is there a general strategy that can solve these kinds of problems when you can't balance one side without making it worse on the other?

(Thanks for the help, I'm new here)

Jobradfield

C4H9OH + 6O2 -> 5H2O + 4CO2

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thanks

Submitted by Anonymous on 17 September 2005 - 8:24pm.

Thanks that helps! :D
Ambient air, I should have seen that one.
That's why it never balanced out!

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