What is the significance of the equilibrium constant (K) in a chemical reaction?
Practice Questions
Q1
What is the significance of the equilibrium constant (K) in a chemical reaction?
It indicates the speed of the reaction
It shows the ratio of products to reactants at equilibrium
It determines the activation energy
It measures the change in enthalpy
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What is the significance of the equilibrium constant (K) in a chemical reaction?
Step 1: Understand that a chemical reaction can go in two directions: reactants turning into products and products turning back into reactants.
Step 2: Recognize that at equilibrium, the rates of the forward and reverse reactions are equal, meaning the concentrations of reactants and products remain constant.
Step 3: Learn that the equilibrium constant (K) is a number that represents the ratio of the concentration of products to the concentration of reactants at this equilibrium state.
Step 4: Know that a large value of K (greater than 1) means that at equilibrium, there are more products than reactants, indicating the reaction favors the formation of products.
Step 5: Conversely, a small value of K (less than 1) means that at equilibrium, there are more reactants than products, indicating the reaction favors the reactants.
Step 6: Understand that K helps predict how far a reaction will go towards forming products or reactants under specific conditions.
