TIONS Activity . can be described as – when a magnesium ribbon is burnt in oxygen, it gets converted to magnesium oxide. This description of a chemical reaction in a sentence form is quite long. It can be written in a shorter form.
The simplest way to do this is to write it in the form of a word-equation. The word-equation for the above reaction would be – Magnesium + Oxygen → Magnesium oxide ( . ) (Reactants) (Product) The substances that undergo chemical change in the reaction ( . ), magnesium and oxygen, are the reactants.
The new substance is magnesium oxide, formed during the reaction, as a product. A word-equation shows change of reactants to products through an arrow placed between them. The reactants are written on the left-hand side (LHS) with a plus sign (+) between them. Similarly, products are written on the right-hand side (RHS) with a plus sign (+) between them.
The arrowhead points towards the products, and shows the direction of the reaction. You must have observed that magnesium ribbon burns with a dazzling white flame and changes into a white powder. This powder is magnesium oxide. It is formed due to the reaction between magnesium and oxygen present in the air.