What serves as a way to express a chemical reaction?

A chemical equation serves as a way to express a chemical reaction because it provides a concise way to represent the reactants and products involved in the reaction. Chemical equations illustrate the transformation of substances, showing how reactants are converted into products and allowing chemists to understand the stoichiometry of the reaction, including the ratios of moles of different substances.

In a chemical equation, the symbols for the elements and compounds are used, along with coefficients that indicate the quantities involved. This representation also includes the use of plus signs to separate different reactants or products and an arrow indicating the direction of the reaction. By following the law of conservation of mass, a balanced chemical equation ensures that the number of atoms for each element remains the same on both sides of the equation.

Chemical bonds, chemical formulas, and chemical structures serve different purposes. Chemical bonds refer to the attractions between atoms in a molecule, chemical formulas express the composition of a compound, and chemical structures depict the arrangement of atoms within a molecule. While these concepts are important in understanding the details of chemical reactions, none of them specifically serve to express the overall reaction itself as effectively as a chemical equation does.