Slopes

[Ricardo Ruiz Flores 1D]

Why is it important that the value of k tells us the slope of the various graphs that we have discussed in class? Should we know why the order of a reaction goes with certain concentrations or functions of concentrations on the y-axis?

[Rachel Formaker 1E]

If you find experimentally certain points on the graphs we discussed in class, you can use the slope to find k.
Since k is experimentally determined, this is the way to find k, not the other way around.

I wouldn't say you necessarily need to memorize why certain orders correspond with certain graphs but you should definitely memorize which orders correspond to which graphs. Dr. Lavelle was pretty clear that this information is important experimentally because it allows you to determine what the reaction order is based on which graphs give you a straight line plot.

[Virpal Gill 1B]

We have gone over the correlating graph with each order so I think that's important to know.

[Luis De La Cruz 1H]

Most of the UAs have mentioned that this information becomes more relevant for 14BL where you actually conduct a chemical kinetics experiment, where you are taking the experimental data derived from the conducted experiment and you plot it on a graph ([ln a] vs time, [a] vs time, or 1/[a] vs time). The data will give you a linear graph for only one of these and from there you can deduce the order of the reaction. Of course whether the slope is negative or positive is also extremely important for this deduction as we've learned.