Lesson 1: Summary

Chemical Reaction

Is the process in which reacting substances, called reactants, are converted into new substances, called products. The characteristics of the products are completely different from those of the reactants. A chemical reaction is represented by a short hand notation called chemical equation as:

                                Reactant(s)  →  Product(s)

In writing chemical equation, instead of using words, chemical symbols and formulas are used to represent the reaction.

According to the Law of Conservation of Mass, atoms are neither created nor destroyed during a chemical reaction.

Therefore chemical equations need to be balanced.

There are various methods of balancing chemical equations. The most common ones are:

1. Balancing Chemical Equations by Inspection Method

2. Balancing Chemical Equations by LCM Method and

3. Balancing Chemical Equations by Inspection Method