The quantitative relationship among reactants and products is called stoichiometry. The term stoichiometry is derived from two Greek words: stoicheion (meaning "element") and metron (meaning "measure"). On this subject, you often are required to calculate quantities of reactants or products. Stoichiometry calculations are based on the fact that atoms are conserved. They cannot be destroyed or created. Numbers and kinds of atoms before and after the reactions are always the same. This is the basic law of nature.
Chemical reaction equations give the ideal stoichiometric relationship among reactants and products. However, the reactants for a reaction in an experiment are not necessarily a stoichiometric mixture. In a chemical reaction, reactants that are not used up when the reaction is finished are called excess reagents. The reagent that is completely used up or reacted is called the limiting reagent, because its quantity limits the amount of products formed.
The most important aspect of a chemical reaction is to know what are the reactants and what are the products. For this, the best description of a reaction is to write an equation for the reaction. A chemical reaction equation gives the reactants and products, and a balanced chemical reaction equation shows the mole relationships of reactants and products. Often, the amount of energy involved in the reaction is given.
