Balancing the Haber process

My favorite reaction is the Haber process, a method for preparing ammonia (NHj) by reacting nitrogen gas with hydrogen gas  

This equation shows you what happens in the reaction, but it doesn t show you how much of each element you need to produce the ammonia. To find out how much of each element you need, you have to balance the equation — make sure that the number of atoms on the left side of the equation equals the number of atoms on the right. You can t change the subscripts, so you have to put in some coefficients. 

In most cases, waiting until the end to bcdance hydrogen atoms and oxygen atoms is a good idea bcdance the other atoms first. 

tackle the hydrogen atoms. You have two hydrogen atoms on the left and six hydrogen atoms on the right (two NH3 molecules, each with three hydrogen atoms, for a total of 

Here s a tidbit for you This equation would cdso balance with coefficients of 2, 6, and 4 instead of 1,3, and 2. In fact, any multiple of 1, 3, and 2 would balance the equation, but chemists have agreed always to show the lowest whole-number ratio (see the discussion of empirical formulas in Chapter 6 for details). 

---