Question

Complete and balance the following reaction:
$CaC{{N}_{2}}+{{H}_{2}}O(steam)\to CaC{{O}_{3}}+.....$

Answer 1

Hint: As we know that an equation is balanced when the same number of each element is represented on the product and reactant side. We must balance the equations accurately, that reflect the law of conservation of matter. We should balance the chemical reaction in such a way that the total mass on the side of the reactant is equal to the total mass on the product side.

Complete Solution :
- When calcium cyanide reacts with water, formation of calcium carbonate takes place along with the emission of ammonia gas. We can write the reaction that takes place as:
$CaC{{N}_{2}}+{{H}_{2}}O(steam)\to CaC{{O}_{3}}+2N{{H}_{3}}$

- Now, we will count the number of atoms from each molecule on both the reactant side as well as product side. And will compare them correspondingly. Here, we will multiply the water molecule in the reactant with 3 as coefficient. And by doing so our reaction gets balanced. We can write the balanced reaction as:
$CaC{{N}_{2}}+3{{H}_{2}}O(steam)\to CaC{{O}_{3}}+2N{{H}_{3}}$

- Here, we can see that the above equation is a balanced chemical equation as all the atoms have the same number on both the sides of the reaction.
- Hence, we can conclude that ammonia gas is released when $CaC{{N}_{2}}$is reacted with steam. And it is a double-displacement type of reaction.

Note: - While balancing the reaction we should start with the atoms that have the lowest number basically the metal atoms. Then, further moving towards the lighter atoms like hydrogen and oxygen that are mostly present in the chemical equations.