Rate determining step

[Jolene Robles 2H]

When you are given a reaction and it does not say whether the steps are slow or fast, how do you determine which step is considering the rate determining step?

[205538966]

The slow step is the step with the highest activation energy, which means it has the slowest rate and therefore limits the overall rate of the reaction.

[Stephanie_manasyan]

Hi! The rate determining step is always the slowest step! So disregard the fast step when writing the overall predicted rate law. Hope this helps!

[MarissaSmith1B]

One way could be comparing the activation energies for each step if these are provided. Another way that I have seen is by looking at a reaction graph and noting which step has the highest activation energy.