System at Equilibrium

[Bridgette Ryning 1D]

In the lecture, we learned that when systems are at equilibrium all changes occur in very small steps. Can someone explain what this means in some context to make this concept make sense?

[NATALY CORTES 3H]

I think it just means that the changes from reaction to products and products to reaction are always occurring.

[Kelly Tang 1B]

I would assume that since systems at equilibrium want to stay at equilibrium, they are going to try their best to maintain that balance. This means that the system would not want to change that much and thus make sure that changes occur in small steps as to not disturb that equilibrium.

[Anabelle Pham 2C]

I think it just means that the products and reactants are going at a constant rate; so, it would be hard to make big changes to them. This makes them change in smaller steps.

[Jeff Balian 2D]

To add to Anabelle's comment, during equilibrium the forward and reverse reactions are both occurring, but at equal rates. There is no drastic shift to either side of the reaction since K has already been reached.

[Elise Tsai 3I]

Yes! The changes in pressures occur in very small steps, so they're able to reach to relatively equal pressures. We were able to apply this concept to an equation,
w = -integral from V initial to V final of the external pressure dV. This equation sums the infinite number of steps, so we can calculate the work of the system. Hope this helps!!

[Ben Hsieh 3I]

Small steps allow the system to minimize the effect of external stress as opposed to drastic alterations when the system is disturbed. This is supported by Le Châtelier's principle. One way to think about this is that when a large change occurs an equally large adjustment must occur for the system to stay in equilibrium and this is intuitively not ideal.

[Kush Brahmbhatt 2K]

A system at equilibrium would typically want to remain at that state and not deviate from it too much. However, since products and reactants are always being generated, changes would occur, but at very small increments so as to maintain equilibrium.

[Graciela Ayala 2I]

A way that helps the concept stick for me is remembering that equilibrium does not mean the reaction stops, it just means that the forward and reverse reactions are basically equal; meaning no net reaction. To be basically equal it helps if both reactions are small. If you think about swinging a pendulum or anything on a string, it will try to come to a stop or equilibrium. It will first start out with really big wide swings and then when it gets closer to the middle, it will swing from right to left a lot smaller. Until it appears it is still, until it actually is not moving.

[Jarod Miller 2E]

A system at equilibrium that is undergoing change does so in small steps so that not too much change happens that could cause an imbalance in the system. So the forward and reverse reactions are happening at an equal and small enough rate to not cause imbalance within the system.