Posted by Donna on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 at 7:10pm.
Look in your book or on the internet for information about activation energy. The activation energy is a "hump" that the reaction must get over before the reaction can continue. Unless something provides the energy to get over the hump, there is no reaction. For example, one form of carbon is carbon black (soot) [or graphite] which are quite inexpensive but they are the more stable forms of carbon as opposed to diamond. But we don't see people not buying diamond rings even though they are becoming the more common forms (albeit slowly). The reason is that to make the transition the diamond form has an activation energy hump so the reaction occurs but it is so slow that we need not worry about the diamonds disappearing in our lifetime. Another example is burning of wood. You don't see wood in a fireplace suddenly and spontaneously light itself. But if we put a match to the wood it starts to burn, the energy produced keeps the wood burning, it in turn lights another log, etc and we can have a roaring fire in the fireplace. The match provides the activation energy needed to start the first spark of a flame.
Related Questions
chemistry - A furnace that provides heat by burning methane gas must have the ...
Chemistry - If 6.0 liters of methane react with 12.0 liters of oxygen according ...
chemistry - If 8.00g of methane is burned with 6.00g of oxygen. How much methane...
CHEMISTRY: URGENT - 30cm^3 of a mixture of methane and ethane were mixed with ...
Chemistry - Consider the following reaction: CH4 +2O2 -> CO2 + 2H2O. ...
Chemistry - A mole of methane reacts with 64g of oxygen at 1 atm, 425 K. There ...
chemistry - 1)The reaction of methane and oxygen yields carbon dioxide gas and ...
chem help - The reaction of methane and oxygen yields carbon dioxide gas and ...
physical science - A mixture of hydrogen gas and oxygen gas are ignited and the ...
science - A mixture of hydrogen gas and oxygen gas are ignited and the following...
For Further Reading
