Final answer:
To balance the chemical equation, a coefficient of 4 should be placed before NO and a coefficient of 6 before H2O, resulting in an equal number of nitrogen and oxygen atoms on each side of the equation.
Step-by-step explanation:
To balance the chemical equation for the reaction of ammonia (NH3) with oxygen (O2) to form nitrogen monoxide (NO) and water (H2O), we must ensure that there are equal numbers of each type of atom on both the reactants and products side of the equation. The initial unbalanced equation provided is:
4NH3 + 5O2 → NO + H2O
By examining the equation, we can see that nitrogen is already balanced with 4 nitrogen atoms on the reactant side and 1 nitrogen atom on the product side, which requires a coefficient of 4 before NO to balance it. Furthermore, there are 10 oxygen atoms on the reactants side, which implies needing a total of 10 oxygen atoms on the products side.
Since each molecule of NO and each molecule of H2O contains one and one oxygen atom respectively, we can add a coefficient of 6 before H2O to reach a total of 10 oxygen atoms, together with the 4 from NO. Thus, the balanced equation is:
4NH3 + 5O2 → 4NO + 6H2O
The numbers of N and O atoms on either side of the equation are now equal, and so the equation is balanced.