To balance the chemical equation \(2 \text{Ag}_2\text{O} \rightarrow 4 \text{Ag} + __ \text{O}_2\), we need to ensure that the number of atoms of each element is the same on both sides of the equation.
Starting with the left side:
- We have \(2 \text{Ag}_2\text{O}\), which means there are:
- 4 Silver (Ag) atoms
- 2 Oxygen (O) atoms
On the right side:
- We have \(4 \text{Ag}\), which already accounts for the 4 Silver atoms.
- The oxygen needs to be balanced now.
In \( \text{O}_2\), each molecule contains 2 Oxygen atoms.
To balance the equation, we need to have 2 Oxygen atoms on the right side. This can be achieved by putting a coefficient of 1 in front of \( \text{O}_2 \):
The balanced equation will be: \[ 2 \text{Ag}_2\text{O} \rightarrow 4 \text{Ag} + 1 \text{O}_2 \] Thus the final balanced equation is: \[ 2 \text{Ag}_2\text{O} \rightarrow 4 \text{Ag} + \text{O}_2 \]