Astudent balanced the chemical equation mg + o2 →mgo by writing mg + o2 → mgo2. was the equation balanced correctly? explain your answer. if the equation was not balanced correctly, write the correctly balanced equation.

Explanation:

Charges on both magnesium and oxygen is 2. Though opposite in sign, they have equal charges so, both of them will be cancelled by each other.

As a result, formula of magnesium oxide is MgO and not .

The student write the equation as , it is not correct.

Therefore, given equation will be balanced as follows.

Since, number of atoms on both reactant and product side are equal. Hence, this equation is completely balanced.