During balancing of the following equation, a student first balances hydrogen instead of oxygen. \(\mathrm{Fe + H_2O \rightarrow Fe_3O_4 + H_2}\) What is the main difficulty this approach may cause?
Oxygen atoms remain highly unequal
Balancing hydrogen first fixes the H2 coefficient, but oxygen atoms on both sides then remain highly unequal because Fe3O4 contributes 4 oxygen atoms per formula unit while H2O contributes only one.
The student would need to keep re-adjusting coefficients to also balance oxygen, so oxygen atoms stay unequal until oxygen is balanced directly.
Hence, this is the correct answer.
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