Understanding Chemical Reactions and

Equations
A chemical reaction is a process through which one or more
substances are changed into different substances. The original
substances are called reactants, and the resulting substances are
referred to as products.

Representing Chemical Reactions

Chemical reactions are represented by chemical equations. Consisting of
symbols and formulas, chemical equations show what happens during a
reaction. The equations present the identities and relative amounts of
the reactants and products involved in a chemical reaction.

4Fe (s) + 3O2 (g)  2Fe2O3 (s)

2KClO3 (s)  2KCl (s) + 3O2 (g)
Compounds at the left-hand side of the arrow are the reactants needed
for the reaction to take place. Those at the right-hand side are the
products formed in the reaction.

Notice the types of numbers in the equations-the big numbers written

before the chemical formulas and the small ones written after some
elements in the formulas. The big numbers are called coefficients,
which give an idea of the molecules or formula units of a substance that
participate in the reaction. The small numbers are termed subscripts,
which tell how many atoms are present in a specific compound. Note
that the absence of coefficients or subscripts means that the number is
equal to 1.

O2 2O2
 SYMBOLS IN CHEMICAL EQUATIONS
SYMBOLS FUNCTION
+ Written between the symbols and/or formulas of reactants or
products.
Left side: read as “combines with” or “reacts with”
Right side: read as “and”
 Separates reactants from products Read as “yields” or
“produces”
(s) Indicates a solid reactant or product
(l) Indicates a liquid reactant or product
(g) Indicates a gaseous reactant or product
(aq) Indicates that the reactant or products is in an aqueous sol’n
Indicates that heat must be supplied to reactants before a
reaction occurs
The substance written above the arrow is a catalyst or a
solvent.
 WORD EQUATIONS
Chemical reactions may be written in two-ways-through word
equation or chemical equation. As the term suggests, a word
equation presents the reactants and products of a chemical
reaction using words. It has only qualitative meaning. It only
identifies the reactants and products involved in a reaction,
and not their quantities.

Consider the reaction for hydrogen chloride formation. This

particular gas is produced by the combination of hydrogen
gas and chlorine gas. The word equation may be written as:

Hydrogen gas + chlorine gas  hydrogen chloride gas

 CHEMICAL EQUATIONS
A word equation can be converted to a chemical equation by
replacing the names of the reactants and products with their
corresponding symbols or formulas. Usually, the physical
state of each reactant and product is indicated using italicized
letters in parentheses after each chemical species. Substances
dissolved in water are considered aqueous and are labeled
(aq).
The chemical formulas for hydrogen, chlorine, and hydrogen
chloride at H2, Cl2, and HCl, respectively. All these species
exist in the gaseous statee. Therefore, the chemical equation
representing the previous word equation is
H2 (g) + Cl2 (g)  HCl (g)