Chemical Equations

What are chemical equations used for?

To show what’s happening to substances involved in chemical reactions - they tell us what atoms are involved and how the substances change during a reaction

How are chemical changes shown?

Using chemical equations

What are the pros and cons of a word equation?

It’s not as quick as chemical symbols and you can’t tell straight away what’s happened to each of the atoms, but its very easy

What are the molecules on the left-hand side of the equation called?

The reactants - they react with each other

What are the molecules on the right-hand side of the equation called?

The products - they’ve been produced from the reactants

What do symbol equations show?

The atoms on both sides, they show the symbol or formulas of the reactants and products

What do symbol equations need to be?

Balanced - there must always be the same number of atoms on both sides (atoms can’t be destroyed or created so there needs to be the same number of each type on the left and right)

How do you balance an equation?

By putting numbers in front of the formulas where needed