Physical States [ENDORSED]

[Andy Liao 1B]

I noticed that for questions asking us to write the balanced equation, the answers in the solutions manual included physical states. I was wondering if we are expected to know how to determine the physical states in a chemical equation. Also, how exactly do you determine the physical states in a chemical equation?

[Chem_Mod]

You cannot always tell what chemical state every species will be after a reaction. However, it is easy to tell with many common substances; oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, etc. should always appear as gases and salts will generally be in aqueous solution or solid.

[Jessica Benitez 1K]

When writing physical states, you can use the following symbols:
solid (s)
liquid (l)
gas (g)
aqueous solution (aq)