Final answer:
A chemical reaction is the process where reactants are transformed into products, involving the breaking and forming of chemical bonds. This is represented by a balanced chemical equation that follows the law of conservation of mass.
Step-by-step explanation:
What is a Chemical Reaction?
A chemical reaction is a process through which substances known as reactants are transformed into different substances called products. This transformation involves the breaking of chemical bonds in the reactants and the formation of new bonds in the products. During this process, atoms are rearranged into new patterns which create substances with different properties from the original reactants.
Chemical reactions are represented by chemical equations, which have reactants on the left side of the equation, an arrow pointing to the right that is read as "yields", and the products on the right side. The equation must reflect the law of conservation of mass, meaning it needs to be balanced with the same number and type of atoms on both sides of the equation.