FLASHBACK

Okay, so let's admit it; we're all pretty much out of it. Now that our huge test is over, we all tend to relax. But please, in the midst of relaxing, please take a while to ponder about your past... Moreover, a specific past... Oh, okay, fine, I'll give it to you: SCIENCE TEN. I know you thought it was over and done with, but let's just say for the time being, it has come back to haunt you.

Remember that Law about conserving mass and energy? Well, here, it comes to play; each side of a chemical reaction has to balance out to the same amount of atoms and particles and whatnot. Oh, and don't forget the mass. I know this sounds overwhelming, but wait 'till you get to the translating form a word equation. Let's just start with a simple equation:
       Ex1/ C₃H₈ + O₂ ---> H₂O + CO_{2    Now this is obviously unbalanced (zomg, the font randomly changed)
There are three carbons on the left, but only one on the right.
There are eight hydrogens on the left but only two on the right.
There are two oxygens on the left but three on the right.
BRAIN JUST MELTED, SO HOW DO WE BALANCE ALL THIS?!}


We all have to start off somewhere. And here, we just have to start with elements that only appear once on each side. In this case, carbon would be the first. Since there are 3 on the left, in order to balance it, we need to put 3 as a coefficient (for carbon) on the right to balance it up. Next, we'd look at Hydrogen. Since there are already 2 on the right side, we have to increase Hydrogen atoms using multiples of 2. Therefore the coefficient will be 4 on the right for water. Then all we do is balance oxygen. Your final equation should look like this:


C₃H₈ + 5O₂ ---> 4H₂O + 3CO_{2  (WOOHOO!)}