Rates of Reaction

Rates of Reaction

Reactions

Reactions can only occur when two different particles come together.

The theory for the way the reaction occurs is called The Collision

Theory.

The collision theory states that that the different particles need to

collide with each other in order to react. However, they do not react

if they collide without sufficient energy, and therefore the more

energy a particle has, the more likely it is to react. The activation

energy is the minimum amount of energy required by a particle in order

to react. When a rate of reaction is improved, the likelihood of the

collision of particles is higher and the energy at which they collide

is increased.

The importance of rates of reaction

The rate of a reaction is the speed at which this reaction occurs. In

different reactions, the rates are different. The two extremes are

iron rusting - extremely slow - and an explosion - so fast you cannot

tell what's going on!

In our body, there are plenty of reactions taking place every second,

in every cell, in order to provide the body with its requirements.

These reactions must occur at a certain speed so that the body runs in

a smooth manner; the reactions are timed perfectly with the

environment in the body.

The rate is very important, and not only in the body. When scientists

perform reactions in a lab, they cannot allow the reaction to take

very long.

When chemicals and medicine is made in an industry, the aim is to make

money. If the reactions take too long, the money is not made as fast

as it should be. Also if there is a crisis and medicine is urgently

needed, then the reactions would have to be significantly speeded up.

This tells us the importance of the speed of a reaction, and the rates

of reaction.

How are Rates of Reactions Measured?

In order to change the rate at which a reaction occurs we first must

measure the current rate and the rate after we have improved the