Question

What is a skeletal reaction?

Answer 1

Chemical reactions are mainly divided into two types: skeletal and balanced chemical equations. The word skeletal means something which is a framework. It is a rough figure of the actual reaction.

Complete answer:
Skeletal equation is when on the reactant side, the total number of atoms of each element is not equal to the total number of atoms of the same element on the product side. In chemistry, skeleton reactions or unbalanced equations are extremely significant. It is the first step in writing the complete chemical equation.
It is an equation that just displays the reactant and product formulas, with no indication of relative proportions. It's a chemical reaction that is unbalanced. It does not adhere to the law of mass conservation. It is a basic means of representing a reaction.
For example:
$Mg + {O_2} \to MgO$
If we consider the above reaction, we see that it is not a balanced equation. It just indicates that the compounds used are Magnesium which is represented by $Mg$and oxygen which is represented by ${O_2}$ . They combine to produce Magnesium oxide which is represented as $MgO$. There is no information conveyed through this equation about the number of moles of each compound required for the reaction.

Note:
Skeletal chemical equations are described as chemical equations that are not balanced. But it is necessary to find a balance because mass cannot be formed or lost, and the number of atoms on the reactant side must match the number of compounds on the product side.