What do the subscripts in a balanced chemical equation represent?

Answer 1

Subscripts represent the number of atoms.

Answer 2

Subscripts indicate the number of atoms of the element. When two or more elements are written as a compound, the ionic charge of the element becomes a subscript in the chemical equation.

Ex. 1

Aluminum Oxide:

Al^3+ + O^2- ------> Al2O3

Also works when combining an element and an already formed compound:

Ex. 2

Sodium Nitrate

Na^+ + NO3^- -----> NaNO3

Ex. 3

Calcium bicarbonate

Ca^2+ + HCO3^- ------> Ca(HCO3)2

Answer 3

The subscripts tell you how many atoms of each element are in the equation. For instance, sulfuric acid has the molecular formula H2SO4; this means that it contains: * 2 atoms of hydrogen (H) * 1 atom of sulfur (S) * 4 atoms of oxygen (O) When you do a balanced chemical equation between two substances, you need to bear in mind the Law of Conservation of Mass: During any chemical reaction matter can neither be destroyed nor created So you need to make sure that you end up with the same number of atoms of each element in the product(s) as you started with in the reactants.

Answer 4

i have the same question but the answer is simple... only when the answer of the negative is 2- and 2 positive.. if it has a 3 positive than you know that page 233 of ur chemistry book is hard.. good luck

Answer 5

The number of Protons and Electrons in any atom is initially the same. But when forming bonds between another atom, sometimes the atom has to give or receive electrons because they are around the nucleus in orbits.

So for example Chloride is a negative ion. Why? Because Chloride has 7 electrons in its last shell, because of that when forming bonds they are too attracted to the Nucleus to give away electrons. So they rather decide to receive electrons from the bond forming atom. Hence Cl forms a negative ion when it receives more electrons and the number of electrons increase in the specific atom. (More Electrons and Less Protons.)

Apply the same theory to other atom in regard with its electronic configuration and see how positive ions are formed. Na forms Positive Ions. Because it has only 1 electron in the last shell and it gives it away because of less attraction to the nucleus. Hence the number of electrons in the atom decreases and the number of Protons increase and the atom becomes a positive ion.

Answer 6

Subscripts represent the number of atoms.

Answer 7

The subscripts in a balanced chemical equation represent the number of atoms of each element present in a molecule or compound. They indicate the ratio of each element in the reaction.