How does one balance a chemical equation, starting with the correct formulas of the reactants and products?

Step 1: Write the skeleton equations

CH4+Cl2→CCl4+HCl
Step 2: Count the number of each atom or polyatomic ion on both sides of the equation.


Step 3: We find that both sides are already balanced with one carbon atom. We find that the reactant side has four hydrogen atoms, so the product side must also have four hydrogen atoms. This is balanced by putting a 4 in front of the HCl:

CH4+Cl2→CCl4+4HCl


Now each side has four hydrogen atoms. The product side has a total of eight chlorine atoms
, so we need eight chlorine atoms as reactants. Because elemental chlorine is a diatomic molecule, we need four chlorine molecules to get a total of eight chlorine atoms.
CH4+4Cl2→CCl4+4HCl

Step 3: Now we check: each side has one carbon atom, four hydrogen atoms, and eight chlorine atoms. The chemical equation is balanced. And, the coefficients are in the lowest possible ratio.

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Story time 📷 📷 sisters 📷 ‍♀ 📷 ‍♀so basically I was in class listening to billie eilish 📷 📷 and my headphones got unplugged 📷 📷 and it played bad guy out loud 📷 📷 so anyway it was playing out loud and all tck to hell 📷 📷 and suddenly the heavens opened and we loooked and it was billie🤩🤩she said "iveaway 📷 📷 and remember praise allah everyday🤗🤗