Question

1. A student performs a reaction in a beaker by reaction silver nitrate with one long copper wire. The student’s thermometer changes from 27°C to 35°C. Based on this, is this reaction endothermic, exothermic, or neither? Explain your reasoning.
2. List three ways that the student could speed up the reaction in question 1

Answer 1

Answer:

1.The reaction is exothermic .

2.

• Decrease the temperature or remove heat
• Add a catalyst
• Increase the surface area of reactants.

Explanation:

1.

As we observed , the reading in the thermometer changes from 27°C to 35°C.

Which means, heat is released when the reaction(displacement reaction) proceeds in the forward direction. - as in to raise the temperature .

Thus it is an exothermic reaction.

2.

According to Le-Chatelier's principle ,

In a reaction , as we increase the temperature or heat , the reaction moves in the direction that consumes or uses the heat.

• Thus, an exothermic reaction moves backward when temperature is increased and moves forward as temperature is decreased.

• By adding a catalyst , the reaction happens faster because of the efficiency of catalyst.
• By increasing the surface area of the molecules, the collision between the molecules happen faster and effectively thus increasing the speed of the reaction.