Determining Types Of Chemical Reactions - Revised 2017

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Note: I will use chemical reaction and chemical equation interchangeably but they are different. Technically, the chemical reaction is something you observe whereas the chemical equation is something you write down to explain what you see. However again, I will use them interchangeably.

As with all chemical reaction(s), you know it is a chemical reaction because the "atoms" (whatever the base particle/unit) change their group from one set to another. The initial group setting is called the Reactant and after rearranging who they group with are called the Product. Each reactant are separate from other reactant with a "+" symbol (and a similar format on the Product side) with a "-->" differentiating the Reactants from the Products.

The Law of Conservation of Matter (and Dalton's extension of this Law) must hold through the Chemical reaction (I use the common phrase, In = Out).

For 1st year high school chemistry students, there are 5 Major Types of Chemical Reactions as follows:

  1. Synthesis (also called Combination, or Composition)
  2. Decomposition (also called Analysis)
  3. Single Replacement (also called Single Displacement)
  4. Double Replacement (also called Double Displacement)
  5. Combustion (here we will assume what is called Complete Combustion but Incomplete Combustion also exist with different products)

If given the chemical reaction, a 1st year high school student should be able to determine which of the 5 major types of chemical reaction the stated chemical reaction is. The following is video explain how you can tell from the chemical equation which type of chemical reaction it is.


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Last edited March 9, 2021 5:20 am (diff)
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