A final comment on stoichiometry involves the optimistic view we’ve taken thus far with regards to the amount of product produced by a chemical reaction. In real life, chemistry is more complicated than the simple, limiting reactant model presented. One reason for this complication is the nature of competing reactions which often produce side paths culminating in undesired products. The amount of product that is obtained when solving a limiting reactant problem is called the theoretical yield. The actual yield is defined as the quantity of product obtained by an experiment conducted in the laboratory. In other words, the actual amount. The two are combined to obtain a percent yield which compares the idealized situation with what has actually occurred chemically.