Question

What do you read the arrow in a chemical equation as meaning?

Answer 1

The arrow represents a chemical or physical transformation.

Explanation:

We use the `rarr` to represent a transformation. Most of the time, we conceive the transformation to be quantitative, i.e. for,

`A+BrarrC`

we would assume that 1 mole of A combines chemically with 1 mole of B to give 1 mole of C product. We could equally use the right arrow to represent a physical transformation: e.g. ice to water to steam.

`H_2O(s) rarr H_2O(l)`

On the other hand, we could also represent an equilibrium reaction, i.e.

`A+BrightleftharpoonsC+D`, and we could write:

`K_(eq)= ([C][D])/([A][B])`, where `[A]` represents the concentration of reagent `A` etc.

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