Slope

[SydBenedict2H]

On Monday Professor Lavelle said that we could tell when the 1st order rate law is being used because the slope would be linear, yet today for the 2nd and 0 order rate laws, those slopes were linear as well. Did i miss something?

[Samantha Kwock 1D]

With [A] denoting the concentration of a reactant, for first order reactions, the graph of the ln[A] versus time will yield a straight line. For second order reactions, the slope will be linear but for a graph of 1/[A] versus time. For zero order reactions, a linear graph is produced only when graphing [A] versus time.

[Raj_Bains_2C]

For first order, the straight line plot is ln[A] vs time. For second order, the straight line plot is 1/[A] vs time. For zero order, the straight line plot is [A] vs time.