Chapter 10

Kinetics and Equilibrium

Kinetics is the study of the rate at which reactant molecules are converted to
products in a chemical reaction. Equilibrium refers to the fact that reactions are
reversible; products can be converted back to reactants. As this chapter will
show you, no matter how often you may see the terms used together, these are
two fundamentally different concepts. Some specific topics covered in this
chapter are rates of reaction, equilibrium and Keq, and Le Chatelier’s principle.