Many general chemistry courses (at least in the US) or online tutorials solve problems of chemical equilibrium by using ICE (sometimes RICE) tables, which track how the moles of reactants and products change going from an initial state to equilibrium.
I'm curious when this technique became so widespread and who developed it? My understanding is that ICE tables are a somewhat modern pedagogical tool, but I have yet to find a source for the idea and when it was popularized.
Answer
ICE tables are mentioned in an 2003 J Chem Ed article by S. Watkins:
A systematic approach to chemical reaction calculations, which is an extension and elaboration of the equilibrium table method first observed by this author in the text by Masterton and Slowinski (4) nearly thirty years ago, is presented. Most texts utilize an “ICE” (initial, change, equilibrium) table when discussing equilibrium (5), but this author has found none that apply the technique systematically to stoichiometry problems.
The textbook cited is Masterton, W. L.; Slowinski, E. J. Chemical Principles, 3rd ed.;Saunders: Philadelphia, 1973; p 355.
So according to this, they have been around at least since 1973.
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