A student performs a reaction twice. In the second trial, she raises the temperature by 20¨¬C and notices that the reaction takes place more quickly. She concludes that the reaction must be endothermic. Explain why the student is incorrect.

Question

aaronq · Answer

have you studied kinetic molecular theory?

anonymous · Answer

No sorry, I haven't.

aaronq · Answer

Essentially, it's incorrect because raising the temperature increases the kinetic energy of system. As a result, there are more collisions between particles and therefore a higher rate is observed. The person in the question is overlooking this.