This means that the enthalpy change of a reaction can be calculated by summing the enthalpy changes of the individual steps involved in the reaction, regardless of the intermediate steps
Hess's law is a fundamental concept in thermodynamics in which the enthalpy change of a chemical reaction is independent of the pathway taken to achieve it
Chemical reactions work much the same way (like in the maze), that is if our reactant serves as the start of our pathway and our product serves as our end result of the pathway
To add the individual ΔH values of the steps for an overall reaction, each step reaction can be manipulated by reversing it and/or maybe treated by algebraic expressions. Therefore, they may be added, subtracted, multiplied, or divided by a factor