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If the heat of reaction is written on the reactant side of a chemical equation, what does that indicate about the reaction?

Answer 1

It means that the reaction is #"ENDOTHERMIC...."#

Combustion reactions are of course #"EXOTHERMIC...."#...and we could represent such a reaction as....

#CH_4(g) + O_2(g) rarr CO_2(g) + 2H_2O(l)+Delta#

Such a reaction possibly cooked your dinner. And certainly we could treat the energy OUTPUT quantitatively according to the reaction stoichiometry.

On the other hand, we could treat an endothermic reaction similary...and here we represent the BOILING of water, a physical reaction...

#H_2O(l) + Delta rarr H_2O(g)#...

And again this process could be addressed quantitatively. Capisce?

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Answer 2

Ellie Andrews

If the heat of reaction is written on the reactant side of a chemical equation, it indicates that the reaction is exothermic.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.