Changing Product Concentration and Equilibrium Reaction

[Dahlia Kirov 3A]

Hi!

I was wondering why the statement "An equilibrium reaction is not affected by increasing the concentrations of products." is false. Wouldn't the equilibrium constant stay the same regardless of whether the concentrations of products (or reactants for that matter) change? I might not be reading the statement correctly but it seems like it's asking whether changing product concentration affects the equilibrium ratio once equilibrium is reached.

[Ann_Ding_1J]

Yeah, the statement is kind of confusing in terms of wording, but the statement is false because a "equilibrium reaction" is defined as a state where the forward and reverse reactions are equal. Therefore, increasing the concentrations of the products would affect the equilibrium reaction (it would shift the reaction more in the reverse direction). In this case, the statement is not about the equilibrium constant, but more about the current state of the reaction. Hope that is helpful :)

[Ali Nosseir]

The equilibrium constant of the reaction would stay the same yet at the moment that the concentration of the reactant or product is changed, the reaction would shift one way or the other, resulting in the forward and reverse reaction rates being different for that specific time.