Practice question · True or false
The order of a reaction can always be read directly from the coefficients of its balanced equation.
Hints
- Does the overall equation tell you anything about the mechanism?
- Order is determined experimentally; only elementary steps match their stoichiometry.
Show the answer
False
Why
False, the balanced equation gives net stoichiometry, not mechanism. Order must be measured, and matches the coefficients only for a genuinely elementary step.
Practise Reaction Kinetics
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Chemistry I is free to start.
More questions on Reaction Kinetics
- Doubling the concentration of reactant A leaves the reaction rate unchanged. Which order with respect to A…
- When [A] is doubled, the rate of a reaction increases by a factor of 4. What is the order with respect to A?
- Sort each quantity by whether adding a catalyst changes it.
- Which statements about the first-order half-life are correct?
- Thermodynamics governs whether a transformation is spontaneous, whereas kinetics governs its pathway and…
- A first-order reaction has a half-life of 25 s. What percentage of the original reactant remains after 75 s?
- In an elementary reaction step, the order with respect to each reactant does equal its stoichiometric…