Average rate [ENDORSED]

[Sacci Mohan]

Why is it that at times rates are negative? Will it always be the reactants?

[dbalestra4F]

Rates are negative because the concentration of reactants will be decreasing because the reactants are turning into products. When the reactants are being converted into products the rate will be negative.

[Dylan Mai 1D]

Although usually, you report the rate as positive

[Julia Cheng 2J]

As long as the forward reaction is progressing faster than the reverse reaction, the rate of the change in concentration of reactants will be negative because they are being consumed.

[Laura Riccardelli]

Would we need to know if the reaction is proceeding in the forward direction based on the k value?

[Chris Lamb 1G]

We assume that the reaction is going in the forward direction

[Emily Mei 1B]

^And because we assume this, we also assume that products are being removed from the system in order to ignore the reverse reaction.