Answer:
The reactants are MgF₂ and Be.
This is a single displacement reaction.
Explanation:
Chemical reactions are written like this:
reactant + reactant => product + product
There may be more or less reactants and products on each side, separated by + the plus sign. The reactants are on the left and the products are on the right.
In the equation BeF₂ + Mg => MgF₂ + Be, <u>the products (on the right side) are MgF₂ and Be</u>.
Since the total reactants are equal to the total products, every element that you see on the left must also appear on the right. On the left, the question gave you the elements "Be", "F" and "Mg". On the right, "Be" was missing, so it must be the missing product.
This is a <u>single displacement reaction</u> because one element that was in a pair was replaced by another.
All single displacement reactions look like this:
AB + C = AC + B An element that was paired up switched places with another element that was not paired up.
In this reaction, "Be" was displaced. It started the reaction paired up with "F", but it was replaced by "Mg".
