Question

How do you balance \[S{O_2} + {O_2} + {H_2}O = {H_2}S{O_4}\] ?

Answer 1

Hint: Sulphuric acid is a strong acid and can be prepared by the combination of sulphur dioxide, oxygen gas, and water. Based on the law of conservation of mass, the atoms in all these compounds which were mentioned above should be equal to the atoms in sulphuric acid.

Complete answer:
Chemical compounds are classified into three types based on their nature. They are acidic compounds, basic compounds, and neutral compounds.
Acidic compounds can easily release hydrogen ions \[\left( {{H^ + }} \right)\] . Sulphuric acid is a strong acid, as it can release the hydrogen ion easily and also fastly. It has a molecular formula of \[{H_2}S{O_4}\] .
It can be prepared by the combination of sulphur dioxide \[\left( {S{O_2}} \right)\] , oxygen gas \[\left( {{O_2}} \right)\] , and water \[\left( {{H_2}O} \right)\] .
According to the law of conservation of mass, the mass is constant on both sides of the chemical reaction.
Thus, the chemical reaction involved is:
\[2S{O_2} + {O_2} + 2{H_2}O = 2{H_2}S{O_4}\]
In the above reaction,
There were \[2\] Sulphur atoms on both sides of the reaction,
There were \[4\] hydrogen atoms on both sides of the reaction,
There were \[8\] oxygen atoms on both sides of the reaction.
Thus, all the atoms in the above reaction are equal on reactants side and products side.
Thus, the above reaction is a balanced chemical equation for the given reaction.

Note:
There were some laws in stoichiometry. The first law in stoichiometry is law of conservation of mass, which states that the mass of the reactants and products must be equal which means the number of atoms on both sides of the chemical reaction are the same.