Student exploration collision theory answer key pdf

Student Exploration: Collision Theory

Vocabulary: activated complex, catalyst, chemical reaction, concentration, enzyme, half-life, molecule, product, reactant, surface area

Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)

1. Suppose you added a spoonful of sugar to hot water and another to ice-cold water. Which type of water will cause the sugar to dissolve more quickly? Hot water

2. Suppose you held a lighted match to a solid hunk of wood and another match to a pile of wood shavings. Which form of wood will catch fire more easily? ______________________

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Gizmo Warm-up

A chemical reaction causes the chemical compositions of substances to change. Reactants are substances that enter into a reaction, and products are substances produced by the reaction. The Collision Theory Gizmo™ allows you to experiment with several factors that affect the rate at which reactants are transformed into products in a chemical reaction.

You will need blue, green, and orange markers or colored pencils for the first part of this activity.

1. Look at the key at the bottom of the SIMULATION pane. In the space below, draw the two reactants and two products of this chemical reaction.

image10.pngReactants: Products:

2. Click Play (image11.png). What do you see? ____________________________________________

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Activity A:

Temperature

Get the Gizmo ready:

· Click Reset (image2.jpg).

· Check that the Reactant concentration is set to 1.0 mol/L, the Catalyst concentration is set to 0.00 mol/L, and the Surface area is Minimum.

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Question: How does temperature affect the rate of a chemical reaction?

1. Observe: Select the ANIMATION tab. View the animation with No catalyst selected.

What do you see? __________________________________________________________

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When two reactant molecules meet, they form a temporary structure called an activated complex. The activated complex breaks up into the product molecules.

2. Observe: Return to the CONTROLS pane. Set the Temperature to 0 °C and the Simulation speed to its maximum setting. Click Play.

A. Describe the motions of the molecules. ____________________________________

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B. Now set the Temperature to 200 °C. How does increasing the temperature affect the motions of the molecules? ___________________________________________

C. What do you notice about the chemical reaction at the higher temperature? _______

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3. Interpret: Select the GRAPH tab. Click the zoom out button (image4.jpg) until you can see the whole graph. What does this graph show? ____________________________________________

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4. Predict: How do you think temperature will affect the rate of a chemical reaction? ________

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(Activity A continued on next page)

Activity A (continued from previous page)

5. Gather data: Click Reset. A useful way to compare reaction rates is to record the time required for half of the reactants to react, called the half-life of the reaction. With the Temperature set to 200 °C, click Play. Click Pause (image5.jpg) when the number of reactant molecules is 10. Record the half-life time in the first space of the table below.

Trial

200 °C

150 °C

100 °C

50 °C

1

2

Mean half-life

Repeat the experiment at different temperatures to complete the table. (Note: To get exact times, you can refer to the TABLE tab.)

6. Calculate: Calculate the mean half-life for each temperature. Fill in these values above.

(Hint: To get an exact mean, first convert each time to seconds by multiplying the minutes value by 60 and adding this to the seconds. To find the mean in seconds, add up the two times and divide by two. Convert the answer back to minutes and seconds.)

7. Analyze: What do your results indicate? _________________________________________

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8. Draw conclusions: For two molecules to react, they must collide at just the right angle and with enough energy to break the original bonds and form new ones. Based on these facts, why does the reaction tend to go more quickly at higher temperatures?