Rate Law Determination of Everyday Processes
Michael J. Sanger, Russell A. Wiley, Erwin W. Richter, Amy J. Phelps · Journal of Chemical Education · 2002
In this experiment, students determined whether burning a birthday candle and flipping pennies are consistent with zero-, first-, or second-order rate laws. Students collected time-dependent data for the candle's mass or the number of pennies remaining (amount) and plotted curves of amount versus time, ln(amount) versus time, and amount −1 versus time. The linear plot of mass versus time indicates the candle experiment is consistent with a zero-order rate law, while the linear plot of ln(pennies) versus time indicates the penny experiment is consistent with a first-order rate law. Numerical values for the rate constants were determined from the slopes of the linear plots.