Strip the Spectators, Keep the Reaction

Pour silver nitrate into sodium chloride and a white solid drops out of a clear liquid. But look at what the molecular equation claims: four compounds, all busy. Most of that is theatre. Two ions found each other; the other two floated through the whole event untouched. The net ionic equation is the reaction with the extras deleted — and getting there turns on one question students answer far too generously: what actually splits into ions?

8 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · MOLECULAR → COMPLETE IONIC → NET IONIC · v1