Chemical Equations and the Conservation of Mass

• The law states that matter cannot be created or destroyed, only changed from one form to another.
• A balanced chemical equation shows equal amounts of reactants and products.
• In chemical reactions, atoms are rearranged but not lost or gained.
• Chemical equations are used to represent chemical reactions by showing what happens on both sides of an equation.
• Chemical equations show how elements combine during a reaction.
• A chemical reaction occurs when a substance (or substances) is changed into one or more new substances
• Reactants: the substances that you begin with at the start of the reaction
• Products: the substances that you are left with at the end of the reaction
• Reactants → Products
• To balance a chemical equation, we need to make sure that there are equal numbers of atoms of each element on both sides of the equation