In a popular classroom demonstration, solid sodium is added to liquid water and reacts to produce hydrogen gas and aqueous sodium hydroxide. Write a balanced chemical equation for this reaction.
Solution:
If the question says solid, we need to write (s) next to the compound, liquid means (l), gaseous means (g) and aqueous means (aq).
Solid sodium means Na(s). Liquid water is H2O(l). Gaseous hydrogen is H2(g). Hydrogen is a diatomic gas and that is why it has a subscript of 2. You can memorize all the diatomic gases with BrINCl HOF mnemonic. Aqueous Sodium Hydroxide is NaOH(aq).
The equation is: Na(s) + H2O(l) —> H2(g) + NaOH(aq)
Now lets balance it : 2Na(s) + 2H2O(l) —> H2(g) + 2NaOH(aq)
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