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 wat...
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
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?
Shavings
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.
Reactants: Products:
2. Click Play ( ). What do you see? Reactants moving around and combing to
form the products
, Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity A: • Click Reset ( ).
• Check that the Reactant concentration is set to
Temperature
1.0 mol/L, the Catalyst concentration is set to
0.00 mol/L, and the Surface area is Minimum.
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? The two come together, transfer the central atom, and separate
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. Reactant A moves around but
doesn’t combine with Reactant B
B. Now set the Temperature to 200 °C. How does increasing the temperature
affect the motions of the molecules? The two reactants move and combine
very fast
C. What do you notice about the chemical reaction at the higher
temperature? It happens faster
3. Interpret: Select the GRAPH tab. Click the zoom out button (–) until you can
see the whole graph. What does this graph show? Concentration of
reactants/products
4. Predict: How do you think temperature will affect the rate of a chemical
reaction? Higher temperature increases the rate of a chemical reaction
(Activity A continued on next page)
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