Chemical Coeffecients

Okay, I know I sound like a dip, but I'm only a tenth grader (freshman in highschool). I...hate...CHEMISTRY!

I'm just...lost. Examplesorry but I dunno how to make the numbers smaller)

O2+C2+CN2=N2+O+C3+C2
As far as I understand, adding coeffiecients is like this:

O2+2C2+CN2=N2+2O+C3+N2C2

And then I get confused. Everything else is balanced, however; 2C2=C3+N2C2 because there are 4 Carbons on one side and 5 on the other! Doesn't make sense, and I tried changing the coeffiecients so it would be balanced but its not! I'm...so...LOST!!!!!

Balancing chemical equations? I can help you with that, my friend. That's basically the only thing I remember from Chemistry. ^^;

(For all intensive purposes, I'm using superscript numbers, since I don't seem to have the keycodes for subscript numbers - and having the smaller characters makes this easier on the eyes.)

So,
O² + C² + CN² = N² + O + C³ + C²

Once balanced, would become:

O² + 3C² + 2CN² = 2N² + 2O + 2C³ + C²

You balanced out the oxygen perfectly fine, the Nitrogen and Carbon is where you messed up a bit.

In the unbalanced equation on the left, you have 3 C and 2 N while on the right you have 5 C and 2 N. The N is equal, for now, so focus on making the C balanced. "Cancel out" two of them by adding by adding a coefficient of 2 to the C³ on the right and adding a coefficient of 3 to the C² on the left. Now, you only have 1 C on the left and 2 on the right left over to worry about. Simply add a coefficient of 2 to the CN² on the right, and the Carbon are now equal. But, you've added 2 more N to the left, so just add a coeff. of 2 to the N² on the left and the equation is balanced.

Also, you seem to have added previously non-existant Nitrogen to the Carbon on the right side of the equation when you were trying to balance it out. Can't do that, I'm afraid.

Hope that helped you, if you still needed help, anyways. I was going to psot here the day you made this thread, but I had to leave before I finished and kinda forgot about it. ^^;