Question

1. Describe how chemists represent chemical reactions on paper.

Answer 1

Chemists represent chemical reaction using various chemical equation but before that we have to understand some laws. As per the law of conservation of mass, Mass can neither be created not can destroy . That means the mass on left hand side of equation that should be equal to the mass on right hand side of the chemical equation

Left hand side of the reaction is represented by the reactant that means the compounds which are undergoing chemical change and the right hand side of the arrow represents product formed after chemical reactions between reactants

Let's take an example suppose hydrogen gas is burnt in presence of oxygen then it will produce water

The above reaction can be represented as

2 H₂ + O₂ 2 H₂O

Left side of this reaction represents reactant which undergoes reaction and right hand side of the arrow that means water represent product.

We cannot create or destroy Mass hence mass of reactants should be equal to mass of product.

Another example of chemical reaction is when hydrogen reacts with nitrogen it will produce ammonia

N_2(g)+ 3H_2(g) = 2NH_3(g)

State of the chemical substance can also be represented using some short cuts like g for Gas state aq for liquid state , s for solid state