The nuts and bolts of
chemical equations
Equations are simply chemical recipes.
To make pancakes we write a recipe.
2 eggs + 1 cup of flour + 2 cups of milk = 4 pancakes
Similarly the equation below tells us that to make one unit of magnesium
chloride we need one atom of magnesium and one molecule of chlorine
For these set of exercises you will need several 3cm bolts and nuts to screw onto the bolts.
Atoms and molecules are not visible. We can represent them as nuts and bolts so we can see how they interact.