Question

An appreciable amount of product and reactants is present in a reaction if its equilibrium constant value is;
a) negative and large b)negative and small c)zero d)unity
and why????

Answer 1

The correct answer is unity but I can't understand.

Answer 2

Lets say reactants = R and products = P and the reaction is
R ==> P. Then Keq = P/R
So if P>R, then K = greater than 1
and if P<R, then K = smaller than 1
and if P = R, the K = 1.
Frankly the problem could have been stated better. A better word than appreciable would have been equal or near equal. By the way you KNOW a and b can't be right because K is never negative. It may be very small as in 1E-14 if P is a very large number and R is very small number as in a reaction that goes almost to 100 % completion.

Answer 3

OK i understand.