balancing chemical equation using linear algebra in matlab

How can I balancing this chemical equation using linear algebra in matlab?

C2H6+O2→CO2+H2O

Answer 1

[Mahesh Taparia]

Hi

One of the possible approach is to find the simultaneous equations of coefficients of the chemical equationa nd solve those equations using solve function. For example, for your case:

x1(C2H6)+x2(O2)=x3(CO2)+x4(H2O)

Then the equations will be:

2*x1=x3; %Equating C coefficients
6*x1=2*x4; %Equating H coefficients
2*x2=2*x3+x4; %Equating O coefficients

Since these are 3 equations and 4 variable. The solution require the ratio of unknowns, so you can put x4=1 and then solve these equations and divide the solution with smaller value of unknown to get the ratio. Moreover, it becomes Ax=b system, you can also solve it using inv function, i.e

x=inv(A)*b;

Hope it will help!