Which condition did you change?
Labs / Chemistry
Collision Theory
Molecules are always crashing into each other, but most bounces do nothing. A reaction only happens when two reactants meet hard enough to clear the activation energy and hit with the right sides facing. Turn up the temperature, crowd in more molecules, or drop in a catalyst, and watch the successful hits flash into product.
Labs / Chemistry / Collision Theory
Collision Theory
Molecules are always crashing into each other, but most bounces do nothing. A reaction only happens when two reactants meet hard enough to clear the activation energy and hit with the right sides facing. Turn up the temperature, crowd in more molecules, or drop in a catalyst, and watch the successful hits flash into product.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
Chemistry connects events too small to see with changes we can measure. This model helps you link particles, energy, and conditions to an observable result.
Explore
Try the model
collisions 0 /ssuccess 0 %rate 0 /s
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- Slide the temperature from Freezer to Furnace. How does the speed histogram shift, and how many more molecules land past the E ₊ line?
- The collision count keeps climbing with temperature, but so does the success fraction. Which one drives the reaction rate more?
- Double the concentration. Do more collisions per second always mean a bigger success fraction, or just more total product?
- Flip on the catalyst. What moves — the molecules' speeds, or the activation-energy line itself?
- Drag through the box to stir. Can you force a burst of reactions with motion alone, and why does it fade once you let go?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Describe what happened at the particle or energy level, then connect it to the result you saw. A strong explanation names both the cause and the evidence.
Check
Before you leave
What happened to the particles or energy?
What observation supports your explanation?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.