In this video, we're going to begin our lesson on chemical reactions. Chemical reactions consist of the making and/or breaking of chemical bonds leading to changes in matter. Every single chemical reaction has reactants and products. Now, reactants are going to be the starting material in a chemical reaction, and you can think of the reactants as the ingredients for the reaction. Then, of course, the products are going to be the ending material in a reaction.
Let's take a look at our image down below, which shows a chemical reaction. On the left-hand side, notice that we have these building blocks that are broken apart into smaller individual pieces. They're broken down. And on the right, notice that the building blocks are coming together to build a larger, more complex structure.
The beginning of every chemical reaction is going to start off with reactants. Reactants are going to be, once again, the starting material in a chemical reaction. Over here on the right-hand side, what we have is the ending material. The ending material is going to be the products. Every chemical reaction is going to have reactants and a product, and the reactant is always going to be found at the very beginning of a chemical reaction arrow, and the product is going to be found at the very end of a chemical reaction arrow.
We'll be able to talk about different types of chemical reactions as we move forward in our course, but for now, this concludes our introduction to chemical reactions as well as the difference between reactants and products. We'll be able to get practice as we move forward through our course. So, I'll see you all in our next video.