Complete and balance the equation for each of the following reactions.

a. Fe(s) + H⁺(aq) →

Video transcript

All right. Hi, everyone. So this question says to provide the missing products and write the balanced equation for the following reaction in which solid nickel reacts with H positive in aqueous solution. Here we have four different answer choices, proposing different coefficients for the products in the reaction and reactants as well. So in this case, right, recall that the presence of our ion here H positive indicates that nickel is reacting with acid. So when a reactive metal reacts with acid, then the metal itself is going to be oxidized, right? This means that the metal itself is going to go ahead and lose electrons, therefore, resulting in a cat ion, a metal cat. So with respect to the products, great, when solid nickel reacts with diluted acid, meaning a strong acid generally dissolved in water, then our product is going to be a nickel ion, but specifically with a positive two charge because recall that when nickel is oxidized in normal conditions, it will most commonly have an oxidation state of positive too. So that explains the charge of the aisle and here it's going to be an aqueous solution. Now, in addition, we are going to see the formation of hydrogen gas as well wrong pen. But as I mentioned previously, we are going to see the formation of hydrogen gas as well. So that's our nickel ion as well as hydrogen gas. So now the question becomes to go ahead and make sure that this reaction equation is balanced because at this point, it is not quite because recall that a reaction is considered balanced only when there are equal amounts of each type of atom on both sides of the reaction arrow. And in this case, if I move this down somewhat, it just so happens that on the left side, we have one hydrogen. Whereas on the right side, we have two hydrogens in hydrogen gas. Now to fix this right, I have to add a stoichiometry coefficient greater than one on the side of the reaction arrow that has less hydrogen. In this case to make sure that I balance out my reaction, I need to add a stoichiometry co efficient of two in front of hydrogen on the left side. So with that, I go from one hydrogen on the left to two, making my hydrogens balance. And if I consider whether or not nickel is balanced, the answer is yes because I have one atom of nickel on the left side and one on the right side as well. And there you have it right here is the balanced chemical reaction. This means that my answer here is going to be option C in the multiple choice because one equivalent of solid nickel reacts with two equivalents of H positive in aqueous solution to form one equivalent of nickel, two positive in aqueous solution and one equivalent of hydrogen gas. So with that being said, thank you so very much for watching and I hope you found this helpful.