Balancing Equations

[ScuzZ]

Swims knowledge of chemistry is purely academic, his main problem is not being able to find enough exercises to keep his furious mind happy.

His main problem is balancing equations at the moment, if any bee could post some equations for swim to balance and practise, and then post the answers when requested that would be greatly appreciated.

Swim

[Rhodium]

Go to

http://www.google.com

and search for Balancing Chemical Equations Exercise and you'll find many more such exercises than you'd ever want to do...

[ScuzZ]

Thanks Rhodium, but swims been there and done them..

He was searching for more "Hive" based equations. He's read a lot of "Recipes" but not a lot of equations.

[Bandil]

ScuzZ>

Then do some more regular ones. "Hive" equations are really just totally plain chemical equations, where the only difference is that the products tend to be slightly more entertaining than KCl, Na2SO4, 2-chloropropane or diethylether... So do as the chief say's and read up on the more regular equations. In time you'll zip through the one's here with ease(we'll some of them anyway).

Happy reading!

Regards
Bandil

[ScuzZ]

Bandil, swim has done heaps of balancing chemical equations, not he would like something useful in his academic arsenal, not just the "Recipe" knowledge, but the whole chemical equation.

It's just very difficult to work out the equation from scratch especially when you don't know what the contents of say Iodine Tincture, or the contents of Pseudo Ephedrine HCL containing pills.

It's just an attempt to push swims knowledge boundaries.

Swim's not a tweaker, he's just an avid chemistry student.

[hypo]

K4Fe(CN)6 + H2SO4 + KMnO4 --> Fe2(SO4)3 + K2SO4 + MnSO4 + HNO3 + CO2 + H2O

(doh, what's interesting about doing a gauss anyway   )

[Bandil]

We'll of course you can't balance the equation if you don't know which compounds you are working with? As far as i know most compounds you purchase contains a list of ingredients, which is very helpfull when figuring out what's in them...

So i don't quite get what it is you want help with: Figuring out which compounds are in which preparations or figuring out the theoretical stuff... There's quite a difference between the two.

Try to give a more concrete example of what you don't get. Perhaps that will give us a chance of helping you out. Simply shouting: 'Help' i want drugs usually doesn't do much good...

Regards
Bandil

[ScuzZ]

Well this in an equation that swim has worked out, he's not sure whether it's right or wrong.

P₄ + I₂ + C₁₀H₁₅NO HCl ^__> C₁₀H₁₅N + ?

That's one equation swims working on. It's just the products are a little difficult to work out.

Any help Bandil?

[abolt]

I read one of your posts in the "stim" forums a while back and noticed that you stated that you based something to p.h. 14.1

Post 458991 (missing)

(ScuzZ: "PH", Stimulants)

I don't claim to have any great chemistry knowledege, in fact if they were giving out an award for the dumbest chemist around here, I would win it easily.

But.........I am intrigued Exactly how did you get P.H. 14.1?

[Vitus_Verdegast]

The constant K of water is only dependent of the temperature,

pK of water at 25°C H⁺ + OH^- = 14
Neutral water: H⁺ = OH^- = 10^-7 mol/L;

At 20°C the pK of water is 14.17, so a pH of 14.1 is very possible. If the temperature is raised then the ion product H⁺.OH^- = K will also increase,

At 100°C for water K is 100.10^-14
-log 100.10^-14 = 12, the pK, so at this temp neutrality is reached at pH 6.

You can even get a negative pH, for example,

if H⁺ = 2 mol/L then the pH is
-log 2= -0.3

1M HCl ^__> 1M H^{+ __}> -log 10 = -1

[Bandil]

Hi ScuzZ!

Try searching Rhodiums site, it really contains a lot of goodies. Among other things what you are looking for. I did you a favour and did the search for you:

Taken from

this

(https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/meth.hi-p.html) page at Rh's.

It's two reactions running in parallel:

The reduction of ephedrine to methamphetamine
Ephedrine + 2HI -> Methamphetamine + I2 + H2O

The recycling and formation of HI
2P + 3I2 + 6H2O -> 6HI + 2H3PO3(also some H3PO4)

Thus if you make the total equation, you'll have ephedrine, phosphorous on one side and methamphetamine and phosphoric acid on the other. The iodine doesn't really qualify for the total equation as it's recycled with the phosphorous and thus acts catalyst like...

So balance away!

Regards
Bandil

[hypo]

usually you can't do them exactly anyway. more sooner than later
you'll have to ignore "insignificant" terms. and don't forget that
pH is the potentia not the concentration, but of the activity!      

thank god all this is irrelevant to synthetic chemists  

[ScuzZ]

Thanks all.

Bandil, Swim's written it down as a 4 equation reaction. Not going to post it here as subscripting everything for readability is a pain in the ass.

Hypo, if you continue to think that PH calculations suck, you'll never become proficient enough with them. The most you use them, the easier they become. Hell, you might be able to do them in your head.

[metanoid]

Hypo, if you continue to think that PH calculations suck, you'll never become proficient enough with them. The most you use them, the easier they become. Hell, you might be able to do them in your head.

I don't know of any way to do activity calculations "in my head."  Activity is kind of a lump term for "all the wacky solvent, electronic, etc. effects that we can't account for just by measuring concentration."

Please pardon the digression, but Richard Feynman's comparison of Greek vs. Babylonian approaches is relevant here. 

http://www.zindamagazine.com/html/archives/1998/aug17_1998.htm

Basically, the Greek approach is highly axiomatic, and hence fragile with respect to said axioms, where the Babylonian approach is highly empirical and intuitive, which is how people come up with all those wacky methods that first-order logic might never have found all by itself.

But I don't see these approaches being in opposition (and neither did Feynman, I think).  Rather, they are complementary, neither complete without the other  

[ScuzZ]

Swims from old school "Hive"

Being able to complete a reaction was never enough, it was streamlining the reaction that was important. Leaving as little unused solvent etc as possible. Making sure that you not only got a high grade product, but also minimised your expenses and minimised the environmental harm when dumping your spent chems.

Unfortunately after computer errors etc, all information was lost, and swim has to begin again with only his failing memory to support him.  

He's trying, but streamlining by himself is quite a task.