Synthesis

__**Synthesis Reactions**__
__Definition:__ A synthesis reaction is what happens when two or more substances combine to form a new compound. It is also called a composition reaction. It can be represented by the following equation.

What does this mean? In this equation, **A** stands for one substance and **X** stands for another. The product, **AX**, stands for the compound that is formed when these two substances react.
 * A+X =AX**

Sample Equation:

Li + __?__ = LiNa

Using the definition of a synthesis equation, you know the missing substance is Na.

__Word Equation & Balancing__ //- Magnesium plus Oxygen react to form Magnesium Oxide.// 1) With a word equation, your first step is to change the sentence into symbols. Mg + O = MgO 2) The second step is to check for any elements that when alone, need to be written as X2. One of these such elements is Oxygen. So, we need to change it in the equation. Mg + O2 = MgO 3) The third step is to balance out the equation. This means that you make sure you have the same number of elements on one side as the other. To help you can make a table and count how many atoms of each substance you have on each side. For our equation.... Reactants Elements Products

1 Mg 1 2 O 1

By looking at the table we can see that we need one more oxygen atom on the right side of the equation. By doing this we will have 2 magnesium atoms as well so we will need to balance out the magnesium too. The balanced equation looks like this.


 * 2Mg + O2 = 2MgO

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