- Joined
- May 6, 2009
- Messages
- 486
- Reaction score
- 27
Hi all,
I was doing a passage and I feel like I ran into trouble with a concept I did not ever find difficult before. Basically, the question said that the reaction was a decomposition that requires heat. However, the reaction is still exothermic. How is this possible exactly? For example, I know that for combustions an initial input is needed to get over the activation energy barrier and then after there is a NET release of heat so the reaction is exothermic. But, how would I know if a reaction is actually endothermic or not if I was ONLY told that it is heated?
Thanks in advance.
I was doing a passage and I feel like I ran into trouble with a concept I did not ever find difficult before. Basically, the question said that the reaction was a decomposition that requires heat. However, the reaction is still exothermic. How is this possible exactly? For example, I know that for combustions an initial input is needed to get over the activation energy barrier and then after there is a NET release of heat so the reaction is exothermic. But, how would I know if a reaction is actually endothermic or not if I was ONLY told that it is heated?
Thanks in advance.