let's talk about these five major types of chemical reactions we'll look at examples

of each and learn how to tell them apart so that you can look at a chemical reaction
and classify it figure out what type it is the first reaction we're going to talk about
is the synthesis reaction these are sometimes called combination reactions now
synthesis is just a fancy word that means making and that's exactly what happens in
a synthesis reaction a compound is made from simpler materials here's an example
carbon comes together with oxygen gas to make carbon dioxide co2 C and O is
single subtances they combine to create CO2 what we make in this reaction is more
complex than the two simple things we start with here's another example we take
sodium and chlorine gas cl2 and that makes sodium chloride NaCl what we end up
with is more complex than the simple things we started with now a quick word
about the equations that I'm using in this lesson some of these equations I'm going
to be talking about like this one right here are unbalanced so there might not be
exactly the same number of atoms on both sides of the equation now normally it's
really important to balance equations but when we're going to be learning about the
different types of reactions the balancing numbers can be a little bit distracting so
here I just want you to focus on the elements and how they're rearranging or
combining with each other in different ways that being said a synthesis reaction is
one where we start with simple materials and put them together to make something
more complex if we want to represent a synthesis reaction more generally or more
generically we could say that it looks kind of like this we have a and B combining
to make a B here a and B are different elements or they're different compounds
coming together to make something more complex so that's a synthesis reaction
let's move on a decomposition reaction is kind of the opposite of a synthesis
reaction. In a synthesis reaction we put things together in a decomposition reaction
a compound is broken down into simpler compounds or all the way down to the
elements that make it up so in this example here we have water h2o and it's
breaking down into hydrogen and oxygen gas these the elements that make it up
now in a decomposition reaction you don't have to break things down all the way
down to their basic elements you can also break them down just into simpler
compounds for example here we have caco3 calcium carbonate and that gets
broken down to two simpler compounds CA o and co2 it's not like we're taking this
and breaking it down into just calcium and just carbon and just oxygen but still
because these are simpler compounds it is also a decomposition reaction so if we
wanted to come up with sort of a generalized way to write a decomposition reaction
we could write it like this a B breaking apart into a plus B where a B is some kind
of compound and a and B are simpler compounds or elements
Here i have a bar of iron. I put it into copper cloride solution and iron react with
copper cloride to produces iron cloride and copper. Copper newly created latch on
iron bar and the color of soluton is fade
okay combustion reactions combustion is basically a fancy word for burn and when
something burns what happens is that a compound containing carbon and hydrogen
and sometimes oxygen combines with oxygen gas to produce carbon dioxide and
water here in my example ch4 which is the chemical formula for methane that's a
type of natural gas combines with oxygen and it forms carbon dioxide and water
h2o. now we can start with different things in a combustion reaction and as it says
here the compound usually contains carbon and
hydrogen so here is another example of a combustion reaction this one starts with
c3h8 which is the chemical formula for propane another type of natural gas and just
like with this reaction we combine c3h8 with o2 and this gives us carbon dioxide
and water so these two reactions are essentially identical except for the number of
carbons and hydrogen's in the compound that we start with it turns out that a lot of
things that we burn like natural gas diesel gasoline are really really similar and they
only really differ in the number of carbons and hydrogen's that are in the molecules
that make them up so combustion reactions for a wide variety of compounds look
pretty similar now as this definition says sometimes we have oxygen in the
compound that we're burning here is one example of a combustion reaction that has
oxygen in it this is a chemical formula for ethanol or ethyl alcohol and you can see
that just like these it has lots of carbons and hydrogen's except it also has oxygen as
well that's no big deal because it combusts just like the other two by combining
with oxygen and making co2 and h2o so if we wanted to come up with a general
way to write the formula for a combustion reaction it might look a little bit like this
we start out with something that has carbon and hydrogen in it and we can have
different numbers of carbons and hydrogen's so that's why I put this x and y here
because a number of carbons and hydrogen's varies and it doesn't really matter
either sometimes the compound has oxygen which is why I put the oxygen here in
parentheses we take this compound it combines with oxygen and it produces
carbon dioxide and water so this here is the generic general equation for a
combustion reaction single replacement reactions break my heart and in a minute
you'll see why so in a single replacement reaction what happens is it one element
that starts out by itself replaces another element and a compound
kicking it out and here's an example to show you what I mean we start out with
iron Fe which is this element that's by itself an iron combines with cucl 2
which is copper chloride okay so copper and chloride are paired up
here but what happens is iron kicks out the copper the Cu so the Cu ends up by
itself and the FE the iron takes the place of that copper so now the iron and the CL
they are now paired up now I'd like to use a dance analogy to explain this and it
reminds me of something that happened all the time in high school here's what's
going on we have a dancing couple the purple and the green and they're so happy
dancing together or at least the purple guy is pretty happy dancing and then red
comes along and red is like hey purple I'm so much cooler get out of the way I want
to dance with green and so poor purple gets booted out and red ends up dancing
with green purple ends up all by himself standing up against the wall pretending to
text pretending to play game on a cell phone but you know he's really actually sad
because he's just been booted from this dancing couple so you'll see that this is
exactly what's going on in a single replacement reaction right Effie iron is like red
here coming up to a dancing couple of Cu and Cl it boots out cu cu ends up by
itself and then red iron takes the place that Cu had an iron ends up paired with CL.
Here's one more example of a single replacement reaction you can see how this
works CU in this case is the red character and Cu goes to a dancing couple of Ag
silver and nitrate agno3 cu boots out AG so AG ends up by itself and Cu takes a G's
place by pairing up with no.3 so that is

how single replacement reaction happens

and a generalized reaction for that

would look like a which is the element

that starts out by itself plus BC that's

the dancing couple and then that gives

us B by itself which is this element

that got booted out and then a and C

ending up pair together so that's a

single replacement reaction so finally

here's the double replacement reaction

now I should mention that single and

double replacement reactions are

sometimes also called single

displacement and double displacement

just in case your teacher textbook you

is a different term for them okay so

double replacement reactions are not

nearly as heartbreaking as single

replacement reactions here's why because

in a double replacement reaction what

happens is the positive and negative

ions in two compounds just switch places

nobody gets kicked out in a double

replacement reaction in a double

replacement of reaction it's just like

you have two different pairs of dancing

couples and the red which used to be

with the gray ends up with a green and

the purple which used to be with the

green ends up with the gray

nobody gets kicked out nobody's sad up

against the wall with their cell phones

we're just switching dancing partners so

here is a chemical equation that shows a

double replacement reaction we start out

with ba and Cl together and then na and

so4 together and they just switch places

so ba ends up with so4 there it is and

na ends up with CL there it is right

there all of these compounds are ionic

which means that we can break them down

into the positive and negative ions that

they're made up of so here the positive

ions are in purple and the negative ions

are in green and as you can see the

positive and the negative just switch

places so BA 2 plus and Cl minus

were initially paired up but then ba

goes and it gets switched it finds a new

dancing partner it has to find the other

negative ion right so the other negative

ion here is so4 2 minus so BA 2 plus and

so4 2 minus end up together making baso

4 and then sodium na 1 plus has to find

the other negative ion which here is CL

minus and they end up paired up over

here and a1 plus and Cl one - making

NaCl here's another example of a double

replacement reaction okay I'll break

this down into its ions right away and

we get this we start with k plus and BR

minus pair together and AG 1 plus and

no.3 1 minus pair together and then they

just switch

the positive and negative so K+ goes and

finds the other negative ion which here

is no.3 1 minus k plus and no.3 1 minus

end up together in a G 1 plus silver

looks for the other negative ion which

is BR 1 minus and a G 1 plus and BR 1

minus end up paired up together making a

G BR so that is a double replacement

reaction and if we wanted to come up

with a general or a generic way to

explain it we could use this reaction

here where you have a B where a and B

are paired up plus C D where C and D are

paired up and then they switch partners

to give us a D and B C so that is a

double replacement reaction so these are

our five major types of chemical

reactions in synthesis simple things

combine together to make something more

complex in decomposition something

complex breaks apart into simpler pieces

in combustion a compound that contains

carbon hydrogen and sometimes oxygen

comes together with oxygen gas to make

carbon dioxide and water single

replacement and double replacement are

our two dance floor reactions in single

replacement and element that's by itself

combines with two elements that are

paired up it kicks one of those elements

out so that element ends up on its own

and then that element takes its place in

double replacement it's like two dancing

couples where the partners just trade

places a and B and C and D start out

paired together and then a and D end up

together and B and C end up together so

those are the major types of chemical

reactions in the next video we'll do

some practice problems so you can look

at a bunch of different reactions and

figure out what type they are