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What is a word equation?
Word equations are a quick and simple way of summarising chemical reactions.
A word equation represents a chemical reaction using the names of the substances involved, not their symbols.
In a chemical reaction, reactants are the substances that react together, and products are the substances formed.
Reactants always go first in word equations, and the names of the reactants are separated using + symbols, like in a maths sum. However, unlike in maths, we do not use an = sign to show what is formed, we use an arrow instead. The products are written after the arrow, separated by + symbols.
For example:
The best way to get to grips with this is to try some questions, so let's go!
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