So far in our discussion of chemical equations…

So far in our discussion of chemical equations we have assumed that these reactions only go in one direction, the forward direction, from left to right as we read it in an equation. That's why our arrowhead points from left to right: reactants react together to make products. However, this is not exactly how things occur in reality . In fact, practically every chemical reaction is reversible, meaning the products can also react together to reform the reactants that they were made of. So instead of writing that single arrow facing from right to top , a more appropriate symbol would be a double arrow, one going from left to right and one going from right to left. Reactants are continually - continuously - reacting to form produce . But at the same time as those products are formed, they remake the reactants. They're both going simultaneously, forming each other. This is what we would call a state of equality .