Strange Bedfellows & Wrong Solutions

Sitting front and center in the audience was Steve Loomis of the police patrolmen’s union. Odd, I thought, for a couple of reasons. One, the room was full of progressive Democrats, so to see a conservative Republican sitting their singing out of the same hymnal with them was somehow incongruent. After all, most of Loomis’ right-leaning members probably voted for Kasich.

And two, just as soon as Kasich moves to exempt safety forces from the onerous new law, policemen and firemen are going to abandon their union brothers and sisters and rush right back into the arms of the party that dissed them. Why? Because these guys simply are not interested in the well-being of anyone but themselves. And their selfish thinking is far too prevalent among so-called progressives in the union movement.

Merit Pay for Teachers

The most popular teacher at my high school (back in the Jurassic Era) was an elderly gentleman named Evans Kern who taught Chemistry. He regaled students with comments meant to inspire us. He would point out the window to the funeral home across the street and virtually yell, “That’s the House of Wills, and this is the house of wants; I want a good job, I want to make money after I graduate, but to do that you’ve got to get a good education.”

Problem was, while he was an inspiring orator, he was a horrible teacher. Not one person in his entire class the year I was in it (or the years before or after) could learn to balance a chemical equation… and he took pains to let us know how stupid we were.

Then he got sick and a substitute teacher, a little white-haired elderly woman, took over his class, and — lo and behold! — two days later everyone in the class could balance a chemical equation. The fact was that old Evans Kern had stayed in the classroom way beyond his useful span. And there are no doubt other teachers hanging on in classrooms today.

The problem is, merit pay (which is being suggested for Ohio teachers) had been tried in other states and proven not to work… too many variables go into the equation that produces a successful teacher. Nonetheless, some teachers clearly do burn out (just like in other professions), and there should be some method of “promoting” them out of the classroom, but there isn’t, and children suffer.

chemical reactions | Home Improvement Blog

During a chemical reaction the position of atoms changes. Hence a chemical reaction may be described as a process in which the arrangement of atoms changes in the molecules.

Law of conservation of matter (atom) states that "Matter can neither be created nor destroyed".

Hence, all the atoms present in reactants must be found in products. The number of atoms present in reactants and products must be equal. This process of equalizing the number of atoms on reactant side and product side is called balancing a chemical equation.

Eg. (1) Observe the following chemical equation.

CaC03 CaO + C02 T

(i) The atoms of calcium, oxygen and carbon which are found in reactants are found in products also.

(ii) In reactants the number of calcium, carbon and oxygen atoms found are 1, 1 and 3 respectively, and same number of same atoms are found in products also.

(iii) This chemical equation is already balanced. There is no need to balance this equation.

Ex.(2) Observe the following equation H2 + 02 H20

Here on reactant side we find 2 hydrogen and 2 oxygen atoms, where as on the product side 2 hydrogen atoms and only one oxygen atom. Hence there is need for balancing the chemical equation.

Observe the following form of equation

H2+{°2 H20

Now the number of oxygen atoms is one in both reactant and product side. But in this equation oxygen molecule is written in fraction.

r. But number of molecules must be indicated as whole numbers. Hence entire equation is to be multiplied by two. Then each and every molecule gets indicated by whole number.

2 [H2+-|-02-+H20]

2H2 + 02 -» 2H20

This is a balanced chemical equation.

Note this

Stages of balancing a chemical equation.

Ex: Chlorine gas burns in hydrogen to form hydrogen chloride gas.

Stage (1). Write word equation.

Hydrogen + Chlorine —» Hydrogen chloride

Stage (2) Write this equation by using chemical symbols and formulae.

H + CI —» HCI

2 2

(Unbalanced equation)

Stage (3) According to law of conservation of matter.

Reactant Product

H - atoms 2 1

CI- atoms 2 1

4 2

To equalize the number of atoms on both the sides HCI'is to be multiplied by 2.

H2 + CI2 -» 2 HCI

(Balanced equation)

Activity 6.4

Verify whether the following equation is balanced or not? If not balance it.

Chemistry for the Utterly Confused

Balancing Chemical Equations

Teacher instruction and student performance in balancing chemical equations, an observational report

Balancing chemical equations

Barron's AP Chemistry