Rate laws and reactions

[Randi Ruelas 1G]

How do we know if a reaction is slow or fast? Is it always given to us or is there a way to determine this?

[chinmayeec 2H]

It will either be given to you or you'll have to determine the slow step through the overall rate law for the reaction. You can also determine it by seeing which step has the lowest activation energy in a reaction.

Hope that helps!

[Valerie Tran 2B]

It will usually give you that info (I think the textbook does this). But you can determine which reaction is fast or slow if you are given the rate law. The reactants present in the rate law are the reactants in the slow reaction.

[Megan Lu 3D]

Hi! Like others have stated above, I believe that we will be told which elementary steps are slow or fast. As far as comparing the speed of reactions with each other goes, we can examine the rate laws. Hope this helps!

[Rachael Cohen 3G]

I don't think we've learned a way to determine what the slow step is just from the reaction mechanism, so I think it would be given to us.