Chemical Reactions
When substances meet and transform into different substances, creating something new from what you started with.
Brief Introduction
Chemical reactions are like magical transformations that happen around us every day! 🔮 Just like how cooking ingredients combine to make a cake, chemicals can mix and change to create entirely new substances. These changes are happening constantly - from the rusting of a bicycle to the digestion of your breakfast.
Main Explanation
Ingredients and Products 🧪
Chemical reactions are like cooking recipes. You start with ingredients (called reactants) and end up with something new (called products). It's like mixing flour, eggs, and sugar to get a cake - you can't easily separate the cake back into its original ingredients!
Signs of Change 👀
You can spot a chemical reaction by watching for changes like bubbles forming, color changes, temperature changes, or new smells. It's like when you drop a fizzy tablet in water - the bubbling and dissolving show something's happening!
Energy Changes ⚡
Chemical reactions either release energy (like a burning campfire giving off heat) or need energy to happen (like plants using sunlight to make food). Think of it like a battery either giving out energy or needing to be charged up.
Examples
- 🍎 When you cut an apple and it turns brown - that's a chemical reaction between the apple and oxygen in the air!
- 🔥 Starting a campfire - the wood combines with oxygen to create heat, light, and new substances like ash and smoke
- 🥖 Making bread - yeast creates bubbles in dough through a chemical reaction, making the bread rise and changing its texture