how do you do chemical equations? How do you know which elements join together and which ones don’t?

Question

how do you do chemical equations? How do you know which elements join together and which ones don’t?

In: 3

Answer 1

ELI5? Hmm… tough one. I’ll give it a shot.
All the elements have been measured to precision. But some of them don’t equal a simple 1,2,3… answer. Some have a little extra leftover, or come up a little short, a little less than one, or a little more than one. Same with the twos and threes and so on…
So you have a broken a ruler into many little pieces, and it magically puts itself back together. The pieces the are a little short of 1, connect with those pieces that have a little more than 1. And so on… and then you get your ruler back.