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“Chemical equilibrium” is a phrase obviously not of everyday usage that must undoubtedly alienate many of you with its mystery. But this is entirely without cause, for the principle behind this pompous phrase is actually quite easy to understand, provided a certain amount of background information is provided. Primarily, one must understand that a chemical reaction is merely a chemical change that occurs between two or more substances to produce one or more other substances. The reacting substances are termed “reactants” and, just as simply, the produced substances are termed “products.” So, essentially, reactants react to form products in a chemical reaction.

 

Though perhaps at first this may seem impossible, a chemical reaction actually has two parts: the “forward” reaction that reacts reactants together to form products, and a “reverse” reaction that actually reacts the products together to form the original reactants again. Thus, while it may appear that only the forward reaction takes place, two, opposite reactions actually take place. Chemical equilibrium, then, is the state of these two reactions when both are occurring at the same speed or rate. Since both occur at the same rate, neither the concentration of the reactants or that of the products increases or decreases; they remain the same since they are used up and produced at the same speed.

 

But this chemical equilibrium, this equality of rates for the forward and reverse reactions, will shift or “favor” either the reactants’ or products’ side of the reaction when the equilibrium is manipulated by unequally altering the two reaction rates. The speed at which a reaction takes place is defined in terms of the concentration of its reactants. So, if the concentration of reactants or products is altered, the speed of the forward or reverse reaction will alter, shifting the equilibrium accordingly. Similarly, because concentration is essentially defined as the amount of mass present divided by the volume this mass occupies, by changing the pressure, and thereby changing the volume, the concentration will change. As when the concentration itself was changed, changing the pressure of the reactants or products, then, will often change their concentration -- which, too, will change the rates of two reactions and disrupt their equilibrium.

 

Henri Louis Le Chatelier (1850-1936), a French chemist, explained this phenomena by saying that when a stress is applied to a chemical equilibrium, the equilibrium will shift so as to relieve that stress. In stressing the equilibrium with a change in concentration or pressure, the equilibrium shifted in order to relieve this stress, altering the rates of the forward and reverse reaction so as to redefine the equilibrium for that system. Once this was redefinition was complete, then, the rates of the two, opposite reactions again became the same, and equilibrium was restored.

 

Often, we can describe life’s complexities with the well-defined, though seemingly abstract principles of chemistry, and such is the case in terms of chemical equilibrium. In our lives, on numerous occations, nothing seems to be happening the way they should or the way we would like them to. Our computer crashes, and we loose all of our diary entries since we were nine years old, we’re late to a life-changing meeting because the car's tire blew on the highway, or maybe even a loved one dies. But in all this chaos, this stress on our normally peaceful life, we are made stronger; we shift or change in such a way as to restore our peaceful life amid the crisis. Equilibrium is restored. Likewise, when everything is going well in our life, we can be sure that one day, someone or something will apply a stress and rock the boat of our emotional equilibrium, changing us in the process of our equilibrium’s shift.

 

This reality, that peace and joy are fleeting emotions amid this life, makes us yearning for the life to come when all things will be made new and when all tears will be wiped away. It is this hope for which we live, of which we dream, and somehow remember deep within us from the days long since gone when Adam and Eve walked in perfect equilibrium with their God. It is this perfect peace, this perfect balance or equilibrium in our hearts and with our fellowman that drives us in what we do. But in all things, we must acknowledge God and his grace, and he will direct our steps and shift and change us to fit his perfect plan.

 

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English 8, section 3 English 8, Section 1 English 8, Section 2 English 8, section 5