Other Causes Involved in the S essays

Other Causes Involved in the S essays Other Causes Involved in the Sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic On the night of April 14,1912 the luxury line R.M.S. Titanic sank in to the cold North Atlanic ocean. Although the collison with an iceburg was the main cause of ships sinking, a closer examanation of the events that lead up to the historic tragedy revealed that other factors were involves. Crew neglegienc, construction oversights, inspection errors, and even the unpreventable played parts in the most famous shipwerck in history. The Titanic was built by Harland and Wolfe shipyards and owned by the White Star Line Company, of Liverpool, England whose owner was American millionaire J. Pierpont Morgan. The main reason that the Titanic was built was to beat out the other large luxury liner competition. Its main purpose was to be the biggest and the best. Ironically, this goal turned out to be one of the Titanics downfalls. The Titanic weighed approximately 46,328 tons, was 882.5 feet long, measured 60.5 feet from the waterline to her boat deck, 175 feet from keel to the top of her four massive funnels, and was 92.5 feet wide. Capable of achieving 22 knots Titanic was not only the fastest moving man made object in the world, but also one of the largest. The Titanic disaster may have been foreshadowed by a struggling young author in 1898 (Lord, 97). It was that year when Morgan Robertson wrote of a large luxury liner called the Titan in a book called Futitlity. The Titan was a vast, luxurious ship that sank after a collision with an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean and had less than enough life boats for its passengers. The similarities between Robertsons Titan and the Titanic are uncanny. In fact, every detail of the fictional Titan matched with the real Titanic, including the amount of lifeboats, the iceberg in the North Atlantic and the size of the boat itself (Robertson, n.p.). Besides the iceberg there were other factors involved in the s...

Reaction Rate Definition and Equation

Reaction Rate Definition and Equation The reaction rate is defined as the rate at which the reactants of a chemical reaction form the products.  Reaction rates are expressed as concentration per unit time. Reaction Rate Equation The rate of a chemical equation may be calculated using the rate equation. For a chemical reaction: a  A   b  B →  p  P   q  Q The rate of the reaction is: r k(T)[A]n[B]n k(T) is the rate constant or reaction rate coefficient. However, this value is not technically a constant because it includes the factors that affect reaction rate (most notably temperature). n and m are reaction orders. They equal the stoichiometric coefficient for single-step reactions, but are determined by a more complicated method for multi-step reactions. Factors That Affect Reaction Rate There are several factors that influence the rate of a chemical reaction: Temperature: Usually this is a key factor. In more cases, raising the temperature increases the rate of a reaction because higher kinetic energy leads to more collisions between reactant particles. This, in turn, increases the chance some of the colliding particles will have sufficient activation energy to react with each other. The Arrhenius equation is used to quantify the effect of temperature on reaction rate. It is important to note some reaction rates are negatively impacted by temperature, while a few are independent of temperature.The Chemical Reaction: The nature of the chemical reaction plays a large role in determining reaction rate. In particular, the complexity of the reaction and the state of matter of the reactants is important. For example, reacting a powder in a solution typically proceeds faster than reacting a large chunk of solid.Concentration: Increasing the concentration of the reactants increases the rate of a chemical reaction.Pressure: Increasing the pressure increases the rate of reaction. Order: The reaction order determines the nature of the effect of pressure or concentration on rate.Solvent: In some cases, a solvent does not participate in a reaction, but does affect its rate.Light: Light or other electromagnetic radiation often speeds up reaction rate. In some cases, the energy causes more particle collisions. In others, light acts to form intermediate products that affect the reaction.Catalyst: A catalyst lowers activation energy and increases reaction rate in both forward and reverse directions. Sources Connors, Kenneth (1990). Chemical Kinetics:The Study of Reaction Rates in Solution. VCH Publishers. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-471-72020-1.Isaacs, Neil S. (1995). Section 2.8.3. Physical Organic Chemistry (2nd ed.). Harlow: Addison Wesley Longman. ISBN 9780582218635.IUPAC (1997) Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the Gold Book).Laidler, K. J.; Meiser, J.H. (1982). Physical Chemistry. Benjamin/Cummings. ISBN 0-8053-5682-7.