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Question

The active mass of a solid is taken to be unity - true or false?


A

True

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B

False

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Solution

The correct option is A

True


The rate at which a substance reacts is directly proportional to its active mass.
Active mass isnothing but the molar density. For liquids and solids, it is the molar concentration and for solids, active mass is taken to be unity irrespective of the quantity. To explain it a bit more - we need to set the context:
The reaction is reversible and it happens at a constant temperature. Under these conditions the density of the solid doesn't change and speaking of a "change” in concentration of the solid makes no sense.
Initially when the "Law of mass action” was first proposed, many different terms like "activity” "active mass” "reaction force” etc were used. In fact the first draft of the 'law of mass action' has been modified over time to give the current version of the Law of the Equilibrium constant.

The modern Equilibrium law or the law of chemical equilibrium is the norm now. We no longer talk in terms Law of mass action. Henceforth, only the Law of chemical equilibrium shall be applied. The Law of mass action is important from a historical perspective and to acknowledge the work of the scientists Guldberg and Waage, who proposed it.


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