ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Element-reactant-product table

Imagine you like to bake cookies. You have a recipe that tells you what ingredients you need to make the cookies, like flour, sugar, and eggs.

An element-reactant-product table is like a recipe for scientists who want to make a chemical reaction. Instead of flour and sugar, they use elements like hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. These elements can combine in different ways to create different products.

For example, if we take hydrogen gas (H2) and oxygen gas (O2) and mix them together in the presence of a flame, they will react to form water (H2O). The element-reactant-product table for this reaction would show that hydrogen and oxygen are the reactants, and water is the product.

The table would look like this:

Reactant | Reactant | Product
---|---|---
Hydrogen | Oxygen | Water

Just like your cookie recipe, scientists use element-reactant-product tables to make sure they use the right ingredients in the right amounts to get the desired result. It helps them understand the chemistry behind a reaction and make predictions about what might happen in different situations.