Post Module 1A #26

[Jacquelyn Challis 2B]

Why are equilibrium constants useful? I answered: One number that gives us information about the relative production rates of reactant and product. But that was wrong, so I'm wondering what the correct answer is. Thanks!!

[Hope Fan 2A]

I got: One number that gives us information about the relative concentrations of reactant and product. I think since we calculate equilibrium constants as the concentrations at equilibrium of products over the concentrations at equilibrium of reactants all raised to the power of their stoichiometric coefficients, we could easily see how the concentrations of reactant and product compare to each other since a K larger than 1 means that there are more product (a larger numerator) than reactant and a K smaller than 1 means that there are more reactant (a larger denominator) than product.

Hope this helps!

[Ria Nawathe 1C]

The correct answer is A, equilibrium constants are useful because they are one number that gives us information about the relative concentrations of reactant and product. K is the ratio of the equilibrium concentrations of products to the reactants raised to their respective stoichiometric coefficients, the number itself doesn't really tell us much about the relative production rates. Hope this helps!