App Detail » Chemistry Equation Balancing Calculator

What's New

Increased the number of elements to 108 from 48. (Pretty much the full periodic table!).
Also increased the # of elements per tab to decrease tab-switching.
Fixed bugs related to matrix solving (LAPACK) and casting types.

App Description

The Equation Balancer assists high school and university students with balancing chemical equations. Intuitive chemistry elements keyboard. Enter chemical equations by selecting elements from their respective tabs. Click the 'Balance Equation' button to see the balanced chemical equation in the textbox output. This app will balance chemical equations by providing you with the coefficients of the equation entered.
Instructions:
To use this app, enter a chemical equation, EXCLUDING COEFFICIENTS. Elements are arranged under four tabs order according to their atomic number. At the moment, only the first 48 elements are provided. In addition to elements and subscripts, you can also use brackets, +, and the arrow to create your overall chemical equation. Press the “Balance” button, and the app will print out the balanced chemical equation with coefficients.
Features:
Contains 108 elements of the periodic table!
Provides coefficients of the answers
Suggests a solution for formulas with multiple answers (e.g. algebraically , it has multiple degrees of freedom).
Dummy-proof! Will attempt to catch chemical equations that will not be able to balance (eg use of an element in the reactant side but does not appear in the product side). The app will try to catch these exceptions and output an error message.
Some App Limitations:
Note that there are a few assumptions, or limitations to this app.
1. It is assumed that coefficients are integer values.
2. Ions cannot be inputted.
3. There are some chemical equations that will not be able to balance (eg use of an element in the reactant side but does not appear in the product side). The app will try to catch these exceptions and output an error message.
4. There are some chemical equations that have multiple solutions, from a mathematical point of view (eg degree of freedom issue). The app arbitrarily attempts to give one such answer, but is not ‘aware’ of the other answers.
5. All attempts have been made to have the app display Error Messages when it cannot solve a problem mathematically (even though it may be trivial from a chemistry perspective), rather than have the app crash or get stuck in an infinite loop.
Possible Source of Error that the App will Catch or Prevent:
- Incorrect number of brackets entered
- Reactants/Products have coefficients before balancing
- Reactants do not match products
- Multiple Solutions (will make an attempt) # molecules - # elements =2
- Overdetermined solutions # molecules- # elements <= 0 (will make an attempt when equals 0, but might be incorrect, so double check!)

App Changes

• July 16, 2015 Initial release
• August 29, 2015 New version 1.0.1