High School Chemistry : Equilibrium
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Example Question #1 : Identifying Reaction Equilibrium
Consider the following balanced reaction:
When the reaction is at equilibrium, which of the following actions will result in more products?
Lower the temperature
Increase temperature
Remove hydrogen gas
Remove nitrogen gas
Lower the temperature
Le Chatelier's principle states that a system will shift in a particular direction in order to reduce introduced stress to the system. In other words, if something is added to one side of the equation, the other side will consequently increase in order to restore equilibrium.
The above reaction is exothermic, meaning that heat is released from the system. As a result, heat is considered a product.
By removing nitrogen or hydrogen gas, the system would shift to the left in order to create more reactants. If temperature is decreased, the system will create more heat by shifting to the right. Not only will this create more heat, but it will also create more ammonia, as they are both products of the reaction.
Example Question #1 : Identifying Reaction Equilibrium
Consider the following generic reaction:
If the equilibrium concentration of 
We can set up the equilibrium expression by placing the products, raised to the power of their coefficients, in the numerator and reactants, raised to the power of their coefficients, in the denominator:
We are given the value of the equilibrium constant and the equilibrium concentration of 
Simplify:
Now we can solve for 
Rounding to 2 sig figs (to match the two numbers we were given by the problem), we get:
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