What are the reactants in a chemical formula?

Answer 1

The reactants USUALLY ARE the materials on the left side and products are the materials on the right side; however, that is just the usual way. You could write the equation from right to left so a better way to describe it is to say the reactants are those before the tail of the arrow while the products are the materials following the head of the arrow. Remember that you CAN HAVE a double arrow. That signifies reaction at equilibrium in which case BOTH sides are the reactant and products side since both forward and reverse reaction are occurring at the same time.