Question

Why does surface area of a reactant influence the rate of the reaction?

Answer 1

Increasing the surface area of a solid reactant exposes more of its particles to attack. This results in an increased chance of collisions between reactant particles, so there are more collisions in any given time and the rate of reaction increases.
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Answer 2

I've already read the googles version of it, and yet I don't understand it.

Answer 3

Put a bit more simply:

particles of substance A interact with substance B ---> reaction

if substance A has a greater surface area, that means it's molecules are more "spread out" and "exposed" (think about a sheet of paper vs. a balled up piece of paper). since substance A has more of its molecules exposed, they can more readily interact with substance B.

maybe that makes a bit more sense?

Answer 4

Yes, gracias! That does make more sense.