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My son's chemistry teacher is quite a nice person, but, I'd say, a little weird . Well, it has never been too much of problem -- never before yesterday, when I went up to him for some serious talk. You know, I am quite concerned about my son's studies and all, so I have this habit of talking to his teachers. So I asked him, how he is doing, and perhaps even gave him a hint that I am quite worried about it. All that he did was to chuckle and hand me a bit of paper that read:

Balance the Following Equations: $$\text{Po+Sc+Y+Re+Rb}+\underline{\qquad}=\text{Cs+In+Db+Fe+Kr+Tl}+\underline{\qquad}\;,$$ $$\text{Al+Lu+C}=\text{Cm+Ta}+\underline{\qquad}$$ $$\text{Re+Cf}=\text{Fr+He}+\underline{\qquad}$$ $$\text{Ba+N}=\text{Sn+Er}+\underline{\qquad}.$$

I don't have the slightest idea what this might mean. Maybe you people can help me out?

Clarification:

There's not much hint on how to proceed in the prologue; it's just flavor-text.

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In each line,

the elements on the left form an anagram of the elements on the right (in American spelling).

The missing elements are

Line 1: nickel and cerium
Line 2: nobelium
Line 3: iron
Line 4: argon

and their symbols spell

"Nice, no fear."

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  • $\begingroup$ @Ankoganit, fun puzzle but I don't understand the meaning of the answer in the context of the flavour text. Why did the teacher give such an overly terse reply? $\endgroup$ – Wossname Jun 21 '16 at 10:29
  • $\begingroup$ @Wossname The title clearly says the teacher is odd ;) $\endgroup$ – sch Jun 21 '16 at 11:35
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    $\begingroup$ Well yes, but this level of oddity might suggest that he shouldn't be allowed to handle dangerous chemicals in a school environment. :) $\endgroup$ – Wossname Jun 21 '16 at 12:11
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    $\begingroup$ @Wossname No. He should be allowed to. He is so much into chemistry that he talks in the language of chemistry! $\endgroup$ – dryairship Jun 21 '16 at 12:53

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