Chapter 20, Problem 6RAT

What can you deduce about the activation energy of a reaction that takes billions of years to go to completion? How about a reaction that takes only fractions of a second?

(a) The activation energy of both these reactions must be very low.

(b) The activation energy of both these reactions must be very high.

(c) The slow reaction must have a high activation energy while the fast reaction must have a low activation energy.

(d) The slow reaction must have a low activation energy while the fast reaction must have a high activation energy.

To determine

The correct option for the statement “What can you deduce about the activation energy of a reaction that takes billions of years to go to completion? How about a reaction that takes only fractions of a second?”.

Answer to Problem 6RAT

The correct option for the statement “What can you deduce about the activation energy of a reaction that takes billions of years to go to completion? How about a reaction that takes only fractions of a second?” is option (c).

Explanation of Solution

The process of the conversion of reactant species into the product species is called a chemical reaction.

The least amount of energy needed by the reactant molecule to get converted into the product molecules is termed as the activation energy. Thus, the activation energy is the minimum required energy barrier which passed by the reactant molecule can get converted into the product molecule to complete the reaction.

The reaction having high activation energy will need more time to complete whereas the reactions having low activation energy will only need a few fractions of seconds to complete the reaction.

Conclusion:

Therefore, the correct option is option (c).