Topic #1: Background

• Chemical Reaction – process in which one or more

  substances, the reactants, are converted to one or

  more different substances, the products.
• Reactants – starting materials, written on the left-

  hand side of the equation.
• Products – end result of the reaction, written on the

  right-hand side of the equation.
• No chemical reaction goes to completion.
• When a reaction stops, some amount of reactants

  remain.
• A chemical reaction reaches equilibrium when the

  concentration of the reactants and products no longer change with time.
• Meaning, the reaction is still happening, but the

  forward and reverse processes are happening at the

  same rate, so everything stays balanced.