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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 1998  > April  >
In the Classroom
Applications and Analogies
An Analogy to Help Students Understand Reaction Orders
Charles J. Marzzacco
Rhode Island College, Department of Physical Sciences, Providence, RI 02908-1991
Cover
April 1998
Vol. 75 No. 4
p. 482
Abstract
This article describes a simple analogy to help students understand the concept of the rate law for a chemical reaction. The analogy involves the mathematical relationships between various characteristics of a cube and the length of its edge. These cube properties are the number of vertices, the sum of the edge lengths, the total surface area and the volume. These four properties depend on the edge length to the zero, first, second and third power, respectively. Thus, the four properties are mathematically analogous to zero-, first-, second- and third-order reactions, respectively. This simple analogy is found to be effective in helping students to do rate law problems.
More Information
*  Citation
 Charles J. Marzzacco. J. Chem. Educ. 1998 75 482.
*  Keywords
 Introductory/High School Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Teaching/Learning Theory/Practice, Kinetics
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 June 25, 1999
June 24, 2005
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