Chemical+Equations

Chemical Equations

Chemical reactions are presented by. The + sign is read as reacts with and the arrow is read as produces. The substances that are on the left side of the arrow are called the reactants while the substances on the right side of the arrow are called the products. Because atoms are never erased or destroyed, your chemical equation must have an equal number of atoms for each element on each side of the equation. When this has happened, the equation is balanced which is the goal of writing out an equation. When balancing equations it is important to use the smallest coefficients possible.