Rates and Equilibrium
Explaining Changes to Equilibrium
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What changes can be made to equilibrium systems?
There are 3 types of changes you can make to a system:
A change in concentration
A change in volume/pressure
A change in temperature
Changes in concentration might involve:
Adding or removing a substance
Increasing or decreasing the partial pressure of a substance
Increasing or decreasing the concentration of a substance
Volume and pressure have an inverse relationship, increasing volume decreases pressure while decreasing volume increases pressure. Changes in volume and pressure include:
Dilution (increasing volume)
Adding an inert gas at constant pressure (increasing volume)
Adding an inert gas at constant volume (increase pressure)
There are 3 ways to explain or describe changes to a system:
Using Collision Theory, which is used to explain changes (rates of reaction vs time)
Using Le Chatellier’s Principle, which is used to describe or predict change, (concentration vs time)
Using the K or Q constants

Explaining Changes to the Haber Process



