Question

Organic chemists state that the rate of a chemical reaction can be doubled by increasing the reaction temperature by ten degrees Celsius. Explain this drastic increase in reaction rate using the concept of reactins and kinetic molecular theory

Answer 1

Most chemical reactions require enough energy for the molecules to exceed the activations energy of the reaction. A 10 degree rise is enough to exceed the energy requirements of most reactions and that is why so many of them are doubled. This "rule" is not absolute and it is isn't valid for much higher temperatures (mostly good for approximately room temperatures) but with KE = 1/2 mv^2 you can see that a higher temperature makes the molecules move much faster and KE is proportional to the SQUARE of the velocity.