The substances that are produced in a chemical reaction are called what?

In a chemical reaction, the substances that are produced as a result of the reaction are known as products. During the process, starting materials called reactants undergo chemical changes, resulting in new substances.

When a reaction occurs, the original substances (reactants) are transformed into different substances that have new properties, which are the products. This is a fundamental concept in chemistry, where the arrangement of atoms in the reactants changes to form the products. Understanding this distinction is key to grasping the flow of chemical reactions and the conservation of mass, as the total mass of reactants equals the total mass of products in a closed system.

The term "reagents" typically refers to substances that are used in a chemical reaction to cause a change, but they do not specifically denote the products of that reaction. Catalysts, on the other hand, are substances that speed up a chemical reaction without being consumed or changed in the process, and therefore are not considered products.