Hey, thanks for the help, so would this be the final balance equation then?
3NaOH + H3C6H5O7--------->Na3C6H5O7 + 3 H20
Can you quickly explain to me why the Na in the products has a subscript of 3, is this because of the charge on it or what? thanks.
Yup. Sodium ions have the same charge as a hydrogen ion, so in your formula for citric acid, you are replacing the H at the front with Na. Since you are replacing 3 of the hydrogen ions, you need 3 sodium ions to balance this out.
A good thing to remember is that whenever you react a weak acid with a strong base, ALL of the acidic hydrogen ions will come off if there is enough base present. So in this case, the three acidic hydrogens of citric acid come off and are replaced with the counter ion of the base (in this case, Na+).