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

Question

anonymous · Answer

Endothermic reactions tend to have large activation energies so need large about of heat to generate, greater than what's in the question usually.  If the reaction takes place more quickly, that is because energy released in one step is used as heat and is used to supply incoming reactants.

anonymous · Answer

Exothermic reactions mean that energy is released.

anonymous · Answer

Thank you @ShizukaTheOtaku

anonymous · Answer

No worries!