Question

How do you determine the speed of a reaction?

Answer 1

The speed of the reaction is defined as the reaction rate. It is been expressed in the form of the concentration of the product which is been formed in a unit of the time. It is also expressed in the form of the concentration of the reactant which is been consumed in a unit of time.

Complete step-by-step answer: We could determine the reaction rate or the speed of the reaction by different ways. We can measure the rate at which the products are being formed for determining the speed of the reaction. If we take a reaction in which a metal is being reacted with an acid so during this reaction the hydrogen gas would be produced. The hydrogen is a gas so it will rise in the water and it will tend to move towards the gas jar where the volume of it could be measured. A reading of the volume must be taken every 10 seconds. Then we would plot a graph according to the reading for volume of gas produced versus the time. The speed of the reaction would be different at each point on the graph. This is the reason due to which it levels off. The gradient at a certain point is the speed of the reaction or the rate of the reaction. at the given time and could be calculated by finding the derivative of the function. The reason for the levelling off is that the reactants are being used up and the product gets increased, it is more and more difficult for the reactants to react.

Note: The speed of the reaction is the amount of reactant which has been converted into the products in the per unit time. The mixing of the reactants tends to influence the frequency of molecular collisions. If the reactants are mixed thoroughly the molecules will tend to collide more and they will react fast.