{"id":86407,"date":"2025-06-01T03:46:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T03:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/?p=86407"},"modified":"2025-06-01T03:46:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T03:46:18","slug":"which-one-of-the-following-equations-is-the-balanced-chemical-equation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/which-one-of-the-following-equations-is-the-balanced-chemical-equation\/","title":{"rendered":"Which one of the following equations is the balanced chemical equation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Which one of the following equations is the balanced chemical equation for the given reaction ?
\n$\\text{Fe + H}_2\\text{O} \\rightarrow \\text{Fe}_3\\text{O}_4\\text{ + H}_2$<\/p>\n

[amp_mcq option1=”$\\text{Fe + 4H}_2\\text{O} \\rightarrow \\text{Fe}_3\\text{O}_4\\text{ + H}_2$” option2=”$\\text{3Fe + H}_2\\text{O} \\rightarrow \\text{Fe}_3\\text{O}_4\\text{ + 2H}_2$” option3=”$\\text{3Fe + 4H}_2\\text{O} \\rightarrow \\text{Fe}_3\\text{O}_4\\text{ + 4H}_2$” option4=”$\\text{3Fe + 4H}_2\\text{O} \\rightarrow \\text{Fe}_3\\text{O}_4\\text{ + H}_2$” correct=”option3″]<\/p>\n

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\n
This question was previously asked in<\/div>\n
UPSC CDS-2 – 2023<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Download PDF<\/a>Attempt Online<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nA balanced chemical equation must have the same number of atoms of each element on both the reactant side and the product side. The given unbalanced equation is Fe + H2O $\\rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2. To balance this equation, we can follow these steps:
\n1. Balance Fe: There are 3 Fe atoms on the right (in Fe3O4) and 1 on the left. Multiply Fe on the left by 3: 3Fe + H2O $\\rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2.
\n2. Balance O: There are 4 O atoms on the right (in Fe3O4) and 1 on the left (in H2O). Multiply H2O on the left by 4: 3Fe + 4H2O $\\rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2.
\n3. Balance H: Now there are 4 * 2 = 8 H atoms on the left. There are 2 H atoms on the right (in H2). Multiply H2 on the right by 4: 3Fe + 4H2O $\\rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + 4H2.
\n<\/section>\n
\nChecking the balanced equation:
\nLeft side: Fe = 3, H = 4 * 2 = 8, O = 4 * 1 = 4
\nRight side: Fe = 3, H = 4 * 2 = 8, O = 4
\nThe number of atoms of each element is equal on both sides.
\n<\/section>\n
\nBalancing chemical equations adheres to the Law of Conservation of Mass, which states that matter cannot be created or destroyed in a chemical reaction. Option C is the only option that shows the coefficients 3, 4, 1, and 4 respectively, which correctly balance the atoms on both sides of the equation.
\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Which one of the following equations is the balanced chemical equation for the given reaction ? $\\text{Fe + H}_2\\text{O} \\rightarrow \\text{Fe}_3\\text{O}_4\\text{ + H}_2$ [amp_mcq option1=”$\\text{Fe + 4H}_2\\text{O} \\rightarrow \\text{Fe}_3\\text{O}_4\\text{ + H}_2$” option2=”$\\text{3Fe + H}_2\\text{O} \\rightarrow \\text{Fe}_3\\text{O}_4\\text{ + 2H}_2$” option3=”$\\text{3Fe + 4H}_2\\text{O} \\rightarrow \\text{Fe}_3\\text{O}_4\\text{ + 4H}_2$” option4=”$\\text{3Fe + 4H}_2\\text{O} \\rightarrow \\text{Fe}_3\\text{O}_4\\text{ + H}_2$” correct=”option3″] This question … <\/p>\n

Detailed SolutionWhich one of the following equations is the balanced chemical equation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1088],"tags":[1105,1096,1239],"class_list":["post-86407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-upsc-cds-2","tag-1105","tag-chemistry","tag-inorganic-chemistry","no-featured-image-padding"],"yoast_head":"\nWhich one of the following equations is the balanced chemical equation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A balanced chemical equation must have the same number of atoms of each element on both the reactant side and the product side. The given unbalanced equation is Fe + H2O $rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2. To balance this equation, we can follow these steps: 1. Balance Fe: There are 3 Fe atoms on the right (in Fe3O4) and 1 on the left. Multiply Fe on the left by 3: 3Fe + H2O $rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2. 2. Balance O: There are 4 O atoms on the right (in Fe3O4) and 1 on the left (in H2O). Multiply H2O on the left by 4: 3Fe + 4H2O $rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2. 3. Balance H: Now there are 4 * 2 = 8 H atoms on the left. There are 2 H atoms on the right (in H2). Multiply H2 on the right by 4: 3Fe + 4H2O $rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + 4H2. Checking the balanced equation: Left side: Fe = 3, H = 4 * 2 = 8, O = 4 * 1 = 4 Right side: Fe = 3, H = 4 * 2 = 8, O = 4 The number of atoms of each element is equal on both sides.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/which-one-of-the-following-equations-is-the-balanced-chemical-equation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Which one of the following equations is the balanced chemical equation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A balanced chemical equation must have the same number of atoms of each element on both the reactant side and the product side. The given unbalanced equation is Fe + H2O $rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2. To balance this equation, we can follow these steps: 1. Balance Fe: There are 3 Fe atoms on the right (in Fe3O4) and 1 on the left. Multiply Fe on the left by 3: 3Fe + H2O $rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2. 2. Balance O: There are 4 O atoms on the right (in Fe3O4) and 1 on the left (in H2O). Multiply H2O on the left by 4: 3Fe + 4H2O $rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2. 3. Balance H: Now there are 4 * 2 = 8 H atoms on the left. There are 2 H atoms on the right (in H2). Multiply H2 on the right by 4: 3Fe + 4H2O $rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + 4H2. Checking the balanced equation: Left side: Fe = 3, H = 4 * 2 = 8, O = 4 * 1 = 4 Right side: Fe = 3, H = 4 * 2 = 8, O = 4 The number of atoms of each element is equal on both sides.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/which-one-of-the-following-equations-is-the-balanced-chemical-equation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MCQ and Quiz for Exams\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-01T03:46:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"rawan239\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"rawan239\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Which one of the following equations is the balanced chemical equation","description":"A balanced chemical equation must have the same number of atoms of each element on both the reactant side and the product side. The given unbalanced equation is Fe + H2O $rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2. To balance this equation, we can follow these steps: 1. Balance Fe: There are 3 Fe atoms on the right (in Fe3O4) and 1 on the left. Multiply Fe on the left by 3: 3Fe + H2O $rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2. 2. Balance O: There are 4 O atoms on the right (in Fe3O4) and 1 on the left (in H2O). Multiply H2O on the left by 4: 3Fe + 4H2O $rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2. 3. Balance H: Now there are 4 * 2 = 8 H atoms on the left. There are 2 H atoms on the right (in H2). Multiply H2 on the right by 4: 3Fe + 4H2O $rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + 4H2. Checking the balanced equation: Left side: Fe = 3, H = 4 * 2 = 8, O = 4 * 1 = 4 Right side: Fe = 3, H = 4 * 2 = 8, O = 4 The number of atoms of each element is equal on both sides.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/which-one-of-the-following-equations-is-the-balanced-chemical-equation\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Which one of the following equations is the balanced chemical equation","og_description":"A balanced chemical equation must have the same number of atoms of each element on both the reactant side and the product side. The given unbalanced equation is Fe + H2O $rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2. To balance this equation, we can follow these steps: 1. Balance Fe: There are 3 Fe atoms on the right (in Fe3O4) and 1 on the left. Multiply Fe on the left by 3: 3Fe + H2O $rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2. 2. Balance O: There are 4 O atoms on the right (in Fe3O4) and 1 on the left (in H2O). Multiply H2O on the left by 4: 3Fe + 4H2O $rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2. 3. Balance H: Now there are 4 * 2 = 8 H atoms on the left. There are 2 H atoms on the right (in H2). Multiply H2 on the right by 4: 3Fe + 4H2O $rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + 4H2. Checking the balanced equation: Left side: Fe = 3, H = 4 * 2 = 8, O = 4 * 1 = 4 Right side: Fe = 3, H = 4 * 2 = 8, O = 4 The number of atoms of each element is equal on both sides.","og_url":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/which-one-of-the-following-equations-is-the-balanced-chemical-equation\/","og_site_name":"MCQ and Quiz for Exams","article_published_time":"2025-06-01T03:46:18+00:00","author":"rawan239","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"rawan239","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/which-one-of-the-following-equations-is-the-balanced-chemical-equation\/","url":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/which-one-of-the-following-equations-is-the-balanced-chemical-equation\/","name":"Which one of the following equations is the balanced chemical equation","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-06-01T03:46:18+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-01T03:46:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/#\/schema\/person\/5807dafeb27d2ec82344d6cbd6c3d209"},"description":"A balanced chemical equation must have the same number of atoms of each element on both the reactant side and the product side. The given unbalanced equation is Fe + H2O $\\rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2. To balance this equation, we can follow these steps: 1. Balance Fe: There are 3 Fe atoms on the right (in Fe3O4) and 1 on the left. Multiply Fe on the left by 3: 3Fe + H2O $\\rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2. 2. Balance O: There are 4 O atoms on the right (in Fe3O4) and 1 on the left (in H2O). Multiply H2O on the left by 4: 3Fe + 4H2O $\\rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + H2. 3. Balance H: Now there are 4 * 2 = 8 H atoms on the left. There are 2 H atoms on the right (in H2). Multiply H2 on the right by 4: 3Fe + 4H2O $\\rightarrow$ Fe3O4 + 4H2. Checking the balanced equation: Left side: Fe = 3, H = 4 * 2 = 8, O = 4 * 1 = 4 Right side: Fe = 3, H = 4 * 2 = 8, O = 4 The number of atoms of each element is equal on both sides.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/which-one-of-the-following-equations-is-the-balanced-chemical-equation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/which-one-of-the-following-equations-is-the-balanced-chemical-equation\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/which-one-of-the-following-equations-is-the-balanced-chemical-equation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UPSC CDS-2","item":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/category\/upsc-cds-2\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Which one of the following equations is the balanced chemical equation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/#website","url":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/","name":"MCQ and Quiz for Exams","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/#\/schema\/person\/5807dafeb27d2ec82344d6cbd6c3d209","name":"rawan239","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/761a7274f9cce048fa5b921221e7934820d74514df93ef195a9d22af0c1c9001?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/761a7274f9cce048fa5b921221e7934820d74514df93ef195a9d22af0c1c9001?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"rawan239"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com"],"url":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/author\/rawan239\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}