percent ionization

[205389184]

Why does a small percentage of initial make the approximation acceptable?

[AngieGarcia_4F]

Because you are subtracting a very minuscule amount from a much larger initial amount so the subtraction becomes negligible. Like if I have $10,000 and I give away $1 I would basically still have $10,000.

[Christine Honda 2I]

The small percent ionization indicates the change in molar concentration or x is so small that it becomes negligible and this makes the approximation acceptable.

[KarineKim2L]

If X is less than 5% of the initial concentration, then the equilibrium concentration will not differ very much from the final even if you subtracted X. (Initial - X) would be close enough to just using the Initial concentration for the equilibrium concentration and therefore we can basically ignore the minus X portion.

[Jasmine 2C]

a small percentage indicates that a very very minute amount of reactant had donated a proton; a very very minute amount could mean 0.00000001, and from ICE boxes, subtracting that very small value by, say, 0.1, would make essentially no difference. So approximating 0.1-x to 0.1 is perfectly fine

[Anish Natarajan 4G]

If you have a small percentage of the initial then that means that the change is negligible so if you have something in the denominator like .01-(8*10^-9) that's pretty much the same thing as .01