{"id": "card_n_ae08bd563c6e", "kind": "note", "title": "Balancing equations — nothing is created or destroyed", "body": "Lavoisier's law: matter is conserved, so a chemical equation must have equal atoms on\nboth sides. The engine balances in-domain — given CH4 + O2 -> CO2 + H2O it returns the true\ncoefficients CH4 + 2 O2 -> CO2 + 2 H2O (https://narrowhighway.com/s/54db514fbdd51c90cad455bc773f8152da3b3eb6a53119da6ddb670c9464e23b), and it catches the unbalanced form as written\n(https://narrowhighway.com/s/3601aac39b6d8a85326b63ea32c72b7bf29f1e9c377ee7445edac90173386a4f). Balancing is bookkeeping: every carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atom that goes in must\ncome out. This one conservation law — mass in equals mass out — is why chemistry is exact and\nnot alchemy, and it is the same conservation that runs the continuity equation and the\nsealed-ledger receipts of this very engine.", "source": {"label": "Concordance assay — 2026-07-09", "url": "https://narrowhighway.com/s/54db514fbdd51c90cad455bc773f8152da3b3eb6a53119da6ddb670c9464e23b", "ref": "chemistry", "authority_tier": "engine_derived"}, "shelf": "science", "box": "chemistry", "bands": ["balancing equations", "conservation of mass", "lavoisier", "stoichiometry", "combustion", "coefficients"], "connections": [], "author": "engine", "created_at": "2026-07-10T01:59:02.989940+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-10T01:59:02.989940+00:00", "visibility": "public", "lifecycle_stage": "public", "volatility": "permanent", "surface": "secular", "metrics": {"paperclips_count": 0, "helpful_count": 0, "not_helpful_count": 0, "cite_count": 0, "walks_through_count": 0, "flagged_count": 0}, "source_hash": "997030bcbc1a742b7fe6426d38167deeb05581d0de37b003f5c5a1941dd690f5"}