Sodium azide (NaN3) is a substance that can be used to inflate airbags. An electrical impulse causes the sodium azide to decompose, producing elemental sodium and nitrogen gas. Write the balanced chemical equation for this reaction.

2NaN₃ → 2Na + 3N₂

Explanation:

First we use the information given by the problem to write an unbalanced equation:

There are 3 N atoms on the left side and only 2 on the right, to remedy that we put a 2 coefficient on NaN₃ and a 3 coefficient on N₂:

Now there are 6 N atoms on both sides of the equation. What's left is to balance Na atoms:

The equation is now balanced.