Reactants and Products

Reactants and Products:

In a chemical reaction the substances that combine or react are known as reactants and the new substance/substances formed are called product or products.

A chemical reaction can be represented in general as follows:

Reactant + Reactant → Product

Example:

When calcium oxide is dissolved in water calcium hydroxide is formed. The reaction involes in this can be written as:

Calcium oxide + Water → Calcium hydroxide

In this reaction calcium oxide and water are reactants while calcium hydroxide is product.

In this reaction 74 g of calcium hydroxide is obtained when 56 g of calcium oxide reacts with 18 g of water, which is proved by experiment.

Calcium oxide (56 g) + Water (18 g) → Calcium hydroxide (74 g)

Here the total mass of reactants, i.e. calcium oxide and water is equal to 74 g. And the mass of product, i.e. calcium hydroxide is also equal to 74g. This proves that the total mass of reactants is always equal to the total mass of product, which proves the Law of Conservation of Mass