Question

A scientist wants to react a barium chloride salt with an acid. to speed up the reaction, the scientist crushes the barium chloride salt until it is a fine powder. this speeds up the reaction by

Answer 1

Out of the following given choices;

A. increasing the pH of the salt.

B. increasing the surface area of the salt.

C. increasing the pressure of the salt.

D. increasing the temperature of the salt.

 

The answer is B. When a substance is reduced to smaller sizes, its surface area to volume ratio increases. Therefore crushing barium salts to smaller particles increase the surface area on which it reacts with the acid. This consequently increases the rate of speed of the reaction.