Ensure you write the states of the reactants and products. • phosphoric acid reacts with magnesium hydroxide

Phosphoric acid reacts with magnesium hydroxide to produce magnesium phosphate and water via the following reaction:

2H3PO4 + 3Mg(OH)2 → Mg3(PO4)2 + 6H2O

(solid) (solid) (solid) (liquid)

This is a typical neutralization reaction of an acid with a base to form a salt and water. The reaction is exothermic, gives off heat,

ΔH < 0 , and may be balanced by adding balancing numbers in front, ie adding molecules, in order to ensure that the total number of atoms of each element is the same on the left and right hand sides of the equation.

Doing so we obtain :

2H3PO4 + 3Mg(OH)2 → Mg3(PO4)2 + 6H2O

(solid) (solid) (solid) (liquid)

it is the most commonly accepted one