Question

What happens when zinc reacts with $HCl$?

Answer 1

Metals are electropositive and can easily lose electrons, when metals like zinc or magnesium reacts with hydrochloric acid, liberates the hydrogen gas and the corresponding salt. The inorganic salt can be formed along with the liberation of hydrogen gas.

Complete answer:
Periodic table is the representation of chemical elements arranged in the increasing order of atomic numbers and arranged in the vertical columns and horizontal rows. The vertical columns are called groups and the horizontal rows are called periods. There are seven periods and eighteen groups in the periodic table. The chemical elements are divided into four blocks namely s,p,d and f blocks. S-block contains alkali and alkaline earth metals, p-block consists of the groups from $13$to $18$, d-block is placed in between the s and p block elements, f-block elements are lanthanides and actinides.
Zinc is an element with atomic number $30$ and has the completely filled s, p and d subshells. The electronic configuration of zinc is $\left[ {Ar} \right]4{s^2}3{d^{10}}$.
Hydrochloric acid is represented by the molecular formula of $HCl$, when zinc metal reacts with hydrochloric acid, liberation of hydrogen gas takes place along with the formation of a salt zinc chloride. The chemical reaction involved will be:
$Zn + HCl \to ZnC{l_2} + {H_2}$
The salt formed is inorganic salt and can dissociate into ions easily.

Note:
When metals which are more reactive than hydrogen, react with acids like hydrochloric acid, the hydrogen will be liberated as the metal is more reactive, it involves in the bond formation with chlorine in hydrochloric acid, thus the hydrogen gas liberates.