Hess's Law states that the enthalpy change of a chemical reaction is independent of the path taken between reactants and products, a direct consequence of enthalpy being a state function. This allows the overall reaction enthalpy to be computed as the sum of standard heats of formation of the products (weighted by stoichiometric moles) minus the sum of standard heats of formation of the reactants, since any reaction can be conceptually decomposed into breaking reactants down to their elemental reference states and reassembling them into products. This principle belongs to thermodynamics, specifically the study of enthalpy of formation and reaction thermochemistry within general chemistry.
Hess's Law states that the enthalpy change of a chemical reaction is independent of the path taken between reactants and products, a direct consequence of enthalpy being a state function. This allows…