Ms. Batcha 8 December 16, 2017 Research Paper How does temperature affect the speed of a chemical reaction? The way that temperature affects the speed of chemical reactions is that by increasing the temperature, the molecules move faster, which increases the chance that they will collide with each other and react. By increasing the temperature, we also increase the average kinetic energy of the molecules. However, for a chemical reaction to occur, the reacting particles must collide with each other. Note that at low temperatures, few reactant molecules possess the minimum amount of kinetic energy necessary to provide activation energy. At higher temperatures, many more molecules possess the minimum amount of kinetic energy necessary, meaning that many more collisions will be energetic enough to lead to a reaction. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essay Increasing the temperature not only increases the number of collisions, but also increases the number of effective collisions, which transfer enough energy to cause a reaction to take place. At a given temperature, not all molecules move with the same kinetic energy. Some molecules move very slowly (low kinetic energy), while a few move very quickly (high kinetic energy). A large majority of molecules fall somewhere between these two extremes. In fact, temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of molecules. As you can see in the figure, increasing the temperature increases the average kinetic energy of the reactants, essentially shifting the curve to the right toward higher kinetic energies. But also note the minimum amount of kinetic energy needed by the reactants to provide the activation energy. (the energy required to trigger a reaction) during a collision. The reactants must collide at the reactant site, but they must also transfer enough energy to break the bonds so that new bonds can form. If the reactants do not have enough energy, a reaction will not occur even if the reactants collide at the reactant site. Particles collide more often at higher temperatures and more collisions are successful. But in cold weather this is not the case, it will be less likely. For a reaction to occur, the reacting particles must collide with enough energy for the collision to be successful. The reaction rate increases if there is an increase in temperature, concentration of reactants in solution, or pressure of gaseous reactants. These changes can be explained by the rate of successful collisions. A collision with too little energy will not produce a reaction. The colliding particles must have enough energy for the collision to be successful or to effectively produce a reaction. The speed of a reaction depends on the rate of successful collisions between reacting particles. The more successful the collisions, the faster the reaction speed.