Question

A friend of yours states, “A balanced equation tells us how chemicals interact. Therefore, we can determine the rate law directly from the balanced equation.” What do you tell your friend?

Short answer

The statement is incorrect. In order to able to determine the rate law, we will first have to determine the order for each of the reactants experimentally.

Step-by-step solution

Understanding the meaning of a balanced chemical reaction.

A balanced chemical equation is one for a process in which the overall charge and the number of atoms for each component are the same for both the reactants and the products. In other words, it must be charged a balanced on both sides of the reaction.

Understanding the reason why the given statement is incorrect.

The friend’s statement is incorrect.The coefficients only tell us the moles of each of the reactants interacting to form a certain amount of moles of the products. However, in order to determine the rate law for a certain reaction, the order(n) for each of the reactants will have to be determined experimentally since they are not related to the coefficients in the balanced equation.