 All right here we go with a video on identifying reaction types. There are basically what six reaction types that you have to be able to identify. There's synthesis, there's decomposition, there's single replacement, there's double replacement, and there's combustion. At this point you're saying I thought you said there were six of them. Well there are six in that these double replacement reactions can also be further broken down into a subgroup called precipitation. Some double replacement reactions are precipitation reactions. That's why I said there are six reaction types that you have to be able to identify. The process is all about looking for patterns. It's about seeing things that are unique about each equation, and you see these general equations given a lot of times, like for synthesis, it's A plus B produces AB is compound that is a combination of the two, and that's fine, but the real key is being able to look at the equation and see what makes a synthesis reaction unique. When you see that, it really makes it easier to identify. Here let's take a look at some equations and what we're really seeing in some of these reactions. Let me put first a synthesis and a decomposition reaction down so we can see what the difference is between those. This is the synthesis of sodium chloride. Sodium reacts with chlorine to produce sodium chloride. That's a synthesis reaction. I'll put down a decomposition reaction. This is the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide decomposes to produce water and oxygen. The bubbles you see are oxygen bubbles. When we look at these two equations, we can see basically they're the opposite of each other. We have two things combined together to make one in the synthesis. We have one thing breaking down to make two in the decomposition. What I think is even more obvious about these equations is they only have one plus sign in them. Each of these equations are missing a plus sign, and that is unique to synthesis and decomposition. When you look at a synthesis reaction, there is no plus sign over here on the product side. There's no plus sign on the product side, and that is the only type of reaction that has no plus sign on the product side. If we look at our decomposition, it's the opposite. There's no plus sign on the reactant side. Again, that is the only reaction type. That's the only one you'll ever see that has no plus sign on the reactant side of it. It makes it kind of easy for us to tell, easy for us to recognize what the reaction type is. We notice that when we see that pattern about it. I'll check this out with the single and double replacement reactions. First, I'll put up a single replacement type reaction, and let's put this one down. That's a single replacement reaction. The fluorine, the chlorine are going to swap places in it. That's what happens. That's what it's really all about. But check it out side by side next to a double replacement reaction. Put these side by side. Then we can see what makes them different from one another and what makes them different from the synthesis reactions that I already have on the paper. Up here, we talked about just one plus sign in it, how this one's missing the plus sign on the product side, how this one's missing a plus sign on the reactant side. Check these out. Two plus signs. That's one of the most obvious difference between the synthesis decomposition reaction pair and the single double replacement pair. These single replacement and double replacement reactions both have two plus signs. We already can see a way to tell the difference between those two groupings. Now if you look even closer, we can see that there's a different pattern here in the single versus double replacement. NaCl is a compound. It's got two capital letters in it. F2 is an element. It's only got one capital letter in it. NaF is a compound. It has two capital letters in it. Chlorine Cl is an element. One capital letter in it. Now take a look at the double. That's a compound. That's a compound. That's a compound. And that's a compound. Everything's a compound in the double replacement reaction. So in single, there's a single element. There's a single compound on both sides. One element and one compound. Both sides of the arrow. Down here in the double, it's two compounds on both sides. They're both replacement reactions in that one element replaces another. One element replaces another. But what makes a single a single is the single compound. What makes the double a double is the double compound. So we can see, again, a difference between the synthesis decomposition pair and the single replacement double replacement pair. And we can see that within the single double there's a distinct difference that pops out that we can use to identify them and recognize them. The last type is the combustion. And those are very obvious patterns. The oxygen, the carbon dioxide, and the water will always be there. When you look at a combustion reaction, any combustion reaction, it always has the oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water in it. Always has them. Only thing that ever changes is what you start with. Carbon dioxide, water. Oxygen, carbon dioxide, water. All combustion reactions always have that oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water in it. Makes them kind of straightforward to identify. We'll talk about the precipitation ones in a separate video.