Any process that involves the rearrangement of structure of the

substance or conversion of reactants into products is defined

as Chemical Reaction.

A chemical reaction can be determined with the help of any of the

following observations.
a) Evolution of a gas
b) Change in temperature
c) Formation of a precipitate
d) Change in colour
e) Change of state

Burning of Magnesium in Air

Materials Required:

Lab Procedure:
 SI Experiment Observation Inference
No.
1 Take a piece of magnesium It looks silvery Colour of
ribbon and rub it with sand white. magnesium metal
paper to remove dirt from its is silvery white.
surface.
2 Hold the magnesium ribbon with It burns Magnesium burns
the help of a pair of tongs, light brilliantly and a in air to form
the magnesium and collect the white ash is left Magnesium oxide
ash of burnt ribbon in a china behind. (MgO).
dish.
3 Take a moist red litmus paper Red litmus MgO is basic in
and bring it in contact with the paper turns nature.
white ash of MgO. blue.

Inferences:

 Magnesium is a silvery white metal that burns in air and utilizes

atmospheric oxygen from air to form magnesium oxide.

 Magnesium oxide changes the colour of red litmus paper to blue.

This reaction shows that magnesium oxide is basic in nature.
 The formation of magnesium oxide is a direct combination reaction
of two elements: magnesium and oxygen. Magnesium oxide is
entirely different from the reactants magnesium and oxygen. So, this
reaction is a chemical change.

Physical Change
 In this change identity of the substance remains same.

 For Example, Melting, Boiling etc.

Chemical Change
 The identity of the substances change
 Reactants are converted into substance due to formation or broken
down of older bonds

Chemical Equation
The symbolic representation of chemical reaction using symbols and
formulae is known as Chemical Equation. For this, reactants are
written in left hand side whereas products are written on the right.

Word Equation
A word equation is a chemical reaction expressed in words rather
than chemical formulas. It helps identify the reactants and products in a
chemical reaction.

Writing Chemical Equations

Representation of a chemical reaction in terms of symbols and chemical
formulae of the reactants and products is known as a chemical equation.

• For solids, the symbol is “(s)”.

• For liquids, it is “(l)”.
• For gases, it is “(g)”.
• For aqueous solutions, it is “(aq)”.
• For gas produced in the reaction, it is represented by “(↑)”.
• For precipitate formed in the reaction, it is represented by “(↓)”.
Balanced Chemical Equation
A balanced chemical equation is the one where the number of atoms
involved in reactants side is equal to number of atoms on product
side.

Eq.1. Example of Balanced Chemical Equation

Steps to form Balanced Equation
To show how to balance the equation, the following equation is
used-
Fe + H2 O → Fe 3 O4 + H2
Step 1: First of all, draw the boxes around each formula as shown
below-

Step 2: Find out the number of atoms of each element. For

Example, on reactant side, 1 for Fe, 2 H, and 1 O and on product
side we have, 3 for Fe, 4 for O and 2 for H.
Step 3: Start to balance the equation with the compound having
maximum number of atoms. While balancing does not alter the
formula of the compound.
Step 4: One by one balance each element on reactant and product
side.

Step 5: After balancing number of atoms on both the side of the

equation, finally check the correctness of the balanced equation.

Step 6: then write the symbols of the physical state of reactants and
products as shown below-
3Fe(s) + 4H2 O (g) → Fe 3 O4 (s) + 4H2 (g)