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Chemistry Forums for Students => High School Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: dani1983 on February 25, 2008, 12:53:51 PM

Title: word equation - need help
Post by: dani1983 on February 25, 2008, 12:53:51 PM

I need to know how to write a WORD equation for lactase hydrolyzing and forming galactose and glucose.  and then how galactose is then converted to another glucose by galactosidase.

thankyou, thankyou so much!!!!

Title: Re: word equation - need help
Post by: Arkcon on February 25, 2008, 01:02:54 PM

OK, they don't want chemical formulas, they want words instead.  What can you write in the form of:

Word + Word ---> Word + Word

instead of

X₂Z + Q₂ ---->  2 XQ +Z(s)

as an example.

Title: Re: word equation - need help
Post by: sjb on February 25, 2008, 01:10:09 PM

At a high school level, I think you may be able to get away just with considering what hydrolysis means, and writing an equation of the form

Sodium + water -> sodium hydroxide and hydrogen.

Depending on how far you are along in "high school" this could perhaps be balanced as well. I assume you mean lactose, not lactase, be careful with the vowels, as these are two different beasts.

As to the second part, consider what the galactosidase is doing? Is it being consumed, changed in any way? I don't think (in my opinion) you need to go into the detail as per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactose#Liver_galactose_metabolism at this level.