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Chemical Reactions and Water

How can you identify products and reactants using a chemical equation?

Chemical reactions can occur when substances are mixed with or dissolved in water. Chemical reactions are represented by chemical equations. In a chemical equation, the reactants are shown on the left side and the products are shown on the right side. The reactants and products are separated by an arrow.

A detailed description of this image follows in the next paragraph.

This image illustrates the chemical reaction that occurs when hydrogen (\( {H}_{2} \)) and oxygen (\( {O}_{2} \)) react to produce water. In this reaction, the reactants are \( {H}_{2} \) and \( {O}_{2} \). The product is \( {H}_{2}{O} \).

Question

Photosynthesis is a chemical reaction where plants take carbon dioxide and water and make sugar molecules that they can use for food and oxygen. Photosynthesis is represented by the equation:

\( \displaystyle {C}{O}_{2} + {H}_{2}{O\ \rightarrow \ }{C}_{6}{H}_{12}{O}_{6} + {O}_{2} \)

What are the reactants and products in the photosynthesis reaction?

The reactants are carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O).

The products are sugar(C6H12O6) and oxygen (O2).