So far in our discussion of chemical reactions we have assumed
that these reactions only go in one direction, the forward direction, from left
to right as we read it in an equation. That's why our arrow points from left to right: reactants
react together to make products. However, this is not exactly how things occur
in nature. In fact,
practically every chemical reaction is reversible, meaning the products can
also react together to reform the reactants that they were made of. So instead
of writing that single arrow facing from left to right, a more appropriate symbol would be a double arrow, one
going from left to right and one going from right to left. Reactants are
continually - continuously - reacting to form products. But at the same time as those products
are formed, they remake the reactants. They're both going simultaneously,
forming each other. This is what we would call a state of equilibrium.