Reversible Reactions

Chemistry is best understood through laboratory experiments, but the resources needed to perform them may not always be available in educational environments. This is why it is important that teachers are aware of possible alternatives; for example, there are many virtual simulations that can be efficiently used to prove various scientific concepts.

One example of an interactive simulation is Reversible Reactions, which has a pretty self-explanatory name if you know a few things about chemistry.

During a chemical reaction, the reactant substances are used to produce new ones; but within a reversible reaction, those new substances can also react to form the same reactant substances that they were made from.

This is what you can simulate with Reversible Reactions, on a basic level. Remember that the app is designed for educational purposes, so you probably won’t learn much about chemistry by yourself unless you have a teacher properly explain every step.

Being a Java app, Reversible Reactions is nothing fancy in terms of animation, but it’s colorful enough to get the attention of even the most indifferent students. You can begin by introducing a few molecules of an unnamed gas in a chamber, see how they react to produce molecules of a new type and then how the new molecules react and produce the original molecules.

You can adjust the temperature and move physical barriers inside the chamber. The app also provides two tools (as separate windows) for measuring accurate experiment results, namely particle energy histograms and information about the gas molecules.

While it would have been more interesting to experiment with different chemical elements or to see how states of aggregation can change during a reversible reactions, there’s no doubt that this simple application is a tool that can make some chemistry classes a bit more fun.