Chemical reactions explain many of the changes that occur around you. They explain virtually all the changes that occur in you as well. For example, chemical reactions are how we get energy from the food we eat.

This nutrition label shows the amount of nutrients an average person will get from one serving of that food. When you eat food, the nutrients are digested and broken into smaller molecules and atoms through a series of chemical reactions. You cannot see this action taking place with the naked eye; just know that these chemical reactions are hard at work inside you.

In this lesson you will learn how to write chemical equations that accurately represent what is happening during a chemical reaction.