Long term vs short term changes in conc.

[Charlene D 3H]

When asked to find the effects of adding more product or reactant to a reaction, will we be told whether we're analyzing changes in the long or short term or should we assume that it is one way or the other?

And just for clarification: say we had one reactant in an equation. if it's in the short term, would we just say that adding a reactant would result in more reactant and if it were the long term, there would be a decrease in reactant?

Thank you in advance! (:

[darchen3G]

We almost always talk about long term changes.

[Isabella Chou 1A]

I think you are correct! Adding a reactant results in an increase in that reactant after a short period of time. But in the long term, the reaction proceeds towards the formation of the products, meaning that there is a decrease in that reactant.

[Madison Muggeo 3H]

My TA addressed this in our session last week, and I think your explanation is correct! :)

[Tessa House 3A]

I think that you are correct in that immediately there will be a significant increase in the amount of reactant, but as the reaction proceeds, it is used up to form product. However, I think there is still more reactant than before because if it all went to form product, the concentration of product would be too high. For either a short term or long term change, the reactant concentration is higher than it was originally.

[aashmi_agrawal_3d]

I think we usually refer to the long term change because the question is already stating the short term change.

[Olivia Monroy 1A]

Agree with what's said above when adding reactant there's initially more reactant (which is literally explained by the adding of reactant) but with time it's observed to form more product, with both the reactant and product concentration higher after adding more reactant. *Equilibrium concentration only changes with temperature.