What’s on the The Five Reaction Types poster
A definition and 5 facts worth remembering.
Most reactions at this level fit one of five patterns. Recognising the pattern lets you predict the products.
- Synthesis: A + B → AB. Two things combine.
- Decomposition: AB → A + B. One thing splits.
- Single replacement: A + BC → AC + B.
- Double replacement: AB + CD → AD + CB.
- Combustion: fuel + O₂ → CO₂ + H₂O.
- Zn + 2HCl → ZnCl₂ + H₂ is single replacement: zinc displaces hydrogen.
Single replacement only happens if the lone element is more reactive than the one it would displace.
Questions about the The Five Reaction Types poster
- What’s on the The Five Reaction Types poster?
- A definition and 5 facts worth remembering. Most reactions at this level fit one of five patterns. Recognising the pattern lets you predict the products. Synthesis: A + B → AB. Two things combine.; Decomposition: AB → A + B. One thing splits.; Single replacement: A + BC → AC + B.; Double replacement: AB + CD → AD + CB.; Combustion: fuel + O₂ → CO₂ + H₂O.; Zn + 2HCl → ZnCl₂ + H₂ is single replacement: zinc displaces hydrogen.. Single replacement only happens if the lone element is more reactive than the one it would displace.
- Who is the The Five Reaction Types poster for?
- The Five Reaction Types is filed under 10th Grade (ages 15–16), so it matches what that year asks a child to remember. It is equally useful to an older student revisiting science, and to the parent or teacher answering the question at the kitchen table.
- When should you use the The Five Reaction Types poster?
- Match the reactants to a pattern, then predict the products before balancing. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so The Five Reaction Types belongs on the wall where that science work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with The Five Reaction Types?
- Acids and Bases, Balancing Equations and Covalent Bonding sit alongside The Five Reaction Types in the 10th Grade set. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Acids and BasesBalancing EquationsCovalent Bonding
- Is the The Five Reaction Types poster free to download and print?
- Yes. The Five Reaction Types downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the 10th Grade set. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the The Five Reaction Types poster print at?
- The Five Reaction Types is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of The Five Reaction Types loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside The Five Reaction Types on the same wall.
Browse every 10th Grade poster, or start from the full catalogue.