Second order

[rhettfarmer-3H]

How come second order has a positive slope unlike first and zero?

[SavannahScriven_1F]

I think it's because when you're plotting 1 and 0 order reactions over time, its in terms of the reactant so it decreases over time. Second order plots are the inverse of the concentration though, so a smaller concentration leads to a bigger value for 1/A. This makes the slope positive.

[Jessica Katz]

The positive slope is there because it is plotting 1/[A], rather than plotting [A] like in zero order where you then see the concentration decrease.

[Valerie Tran 2B]

The graph is plotting 1/concentration vs time and as time increases, the concentration of a reactant will decrease. Since the y axis is 1/concentration, the y value will increase as time goes on because concentration is in the denominator

[Nathan Tong 3G]

As time goes on, the concentration of the reactant decreases. Therefore, since the second order graph plots 1/[A] over time, the denominator [A] will decrease. As the denominator of a fraction decreases, its value increases, hence the positive slope.

[Audrey Banzali-Marks 1A]

You plot 1/[A] on the y-axis. Since the concentration of A decreases as time goes on, the denominator of this fraction also decreases, which makes the fraction as a whole bigger.