So I was doing a few problems in an MCAT gen chem book, one of the questions had this diagram of a simple one-step endothermic reaction:
http://www.chemguide.co.uk/physical/basicrates/endoprofile.gif
This was in the 'Kinetics' section of the test book.
So basically the questions was:
Which of the following is true of the energy diagram?
a) The reverse reaction occurs faster than the forward reaction
b) The forward reaction occurs fast than the reverse reaction
c) Can't tell tell rates from the diagram
Now I have always been under the impression that thermodynamics and kinetics are separate, so naturally I chose C. Since this is an energy diagram which indicates that the reaction is endothermic, I saw this as a thermodynamic diagram and that kinetics cannot be determined from the graph alone
But the answer is A. I do understand that the activation energy is lower for the reverse reaction...but how can rates be determined when "endothermicity" is a thermodynamic property?
http://www.chemguide.co.uk/physical/basicrates/endoprofile.gif
This was in the 'Kinetics' section of the test book.
So basically the questions was:
Which of the following is true of the energy diagram?
a) The reverse reaction occurs faster than the forward reaction
b) The forward reaction occurs fast than the reverse reaction
c) Can't tell tell rates from the diagram
Now I have always been under the impression that thermodynamics and kinetics are separate, so naturally I chose C. Since this is an energy diagram which indicates that the reaction is endothermic, I saw this as a thermodynamic diagram and that kinetics cannot be determined from the graph alone
But the answer is A. I do understand that the activation energy is lower for the reverse reaction...but how can rates be determined when "endothermicity" is a thermodynamic property?
