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UNC-Chapel Hill Calculator Fundamentals Program

Department of Chemistry

An interactive educational exercise


Applications in Science: Balancing Equations


aFeCl2 + bNa3(PO4)---> cFe3(PO4)2 + dNaCl

The trick with this one is to treat the phosphate ion (PO4-3) as an element, and not break it into two individual elements.If you do that, you get:

Fe: 1a + 0b -3c = 0d
Cl: 2a + 0b + 0c = 1d
Na: 0a + 3b + 0c = 1d
(PO4): 0a + 1b - 2c = 0d

Note that you do not have a square matrix for Matrix A. Following the regular procedures, you should get a 4 x 3 matrix (four rows, three columns). You can make it square without changing the algorithm by adding a column of 1's at the end of the matrix.


Go to: Back to Balancing Equations, Session 3 Main Page, Undergraduate Chemistry Page

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Last Update: July 29, 1997
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