To understand how we balance chemical equations, we must know why. The reason why we balance chemical equations is to predict an accurate amount of reactants required for an experiment as well as understand the amount of product that can be created. In this example we predicted that we can have 2 units of Ferric Oxide and 3 units of Carbon combined to produce 4 units of Iron and 3 units of Carbon dioxide.

There are several steps to balancing chemical equations. How about we take a look at the left and go through the step by step process of it.