Reactions & Rates

The whole Universe, as we know it, is made up of atoms and molecules, which are studied by both chemistry and physics. Understanding how these tiny building blocks interact is essential to learning more about life and its surrounding environment.

One theory that helps understand chemical reactions better is called the Collision Theory; developed at the beginning of the 20th century, it states that, in order for particles to react, they must collide with each other. There are probably many lab experiments one can do to understand this theory better, but for those of you who don’t have that kind of equipment, there’s Reactions & Rates.

Even if this program was designed for study, don’t expect a Large Hadron Collider simulation or anything like that. Reactions & Rates is a simply-animated Java app that’s inspired more by pinball than actual particle-colliding technology.

From the first tab, you can throw a single atom into a molecule made of two atoms and see what happens. You can raise or lower temperature to stimulate the energy required for the reactions to occur. In the second tab, you can play with as many molecules in the container as you want, while in the third tab you also get some live statistics via different chart displays.

With Reactions & Rates, you can see how molecules break apart or how they bond. You can also measure how quickly reactions happen with different energy levels. However, you have to remember that the program is designed to be used by teachers and students alike. This means that, if you don’t know anything at all about collision theory before you first use this program, you probably won’t learn new stuff just by playing with it and not doing a lot of additional research.