What is a chemical equation? Explain how it can be represented.

Chemical equation- A representation of a chemical reaction with the help of symbols and chemical formulae of the substances involved in it is known as a chemical equation.

Representation of chemical equation -

• A symbol is used to represent an element and a formula is used to represent a compound.
• In general we can write as -

$\mathrm{Reactants}\to \mathrm{Products}$

• There are two ways of representing a chemical equation -

As a word equation -

• A word equation gives the name of the reactants and products involved in a chemical reaction.
• Example - The reaction of carbon with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide can be written in words as- $\mathrm{Carbon}+\mathrm{Oxygen}\to \mathrm{Carbon}\mathrm{dioxide}$

Using symbols and formulae -

• The equation of a chemical reaction can be represented using the symbols and formulae of the reactants and products.
• Example - Reaction of carbon and oxygen form carbon dioxide.

$\underset{\mathrm{Carbon}}{\mathrm{C}}+\underset{\mathrm{Oxygen}}{{\mathrm{O}}_2}\to \underset{\mathrm{Carbon}\mathrm{dioxide}}{{\mathrm{CO}}_2}$