Enzymes are nature's catalysts, mediating chemical processes in living systems. The study of enzyme function and mechanism includes defining the maximum catalytic rate and affinity for substrate/s (among other factors), referred to as enzyme kinetics. Enzyme kinetics is a staple of biochemistry curricula and other disciplines, from molecular and…

The reaction rate and rate law are chemical kinetics concepts that undergraduate students have difficulty understanding and applying in real life. A further challenge is the overall reaction rate of consecutive reactions. Herein we present a creative teaching practice using the analogy-based approach to exploit the similarities between the…

This study aims to demonstrate how the average speed of a light-emitting toy car may be determined using a smartphone's light sensor. The freely available Android smartphone application, "AndroSensor," was used for the experiment. The classroom experiment combines complementary physics knowledge of optics and kinematics to find the…

This simple experiment uses an unusual graph straightening exercise to confirm the parallel axis theorem for an irregular object. Along the way, it estimates experimental values for g and the moment of inertia of a tennis racket. We use Excel to find a 95% confidence interval for the true values.

A three-part project for students in physical chemistry, computational chemistry, or independent study is described in which they explore applications of valence bond (VB) and molecular orbital-configuration interaction (MO-CI) treatments of H[subscript 2]. Using a scientific spreadsheet, students construct potential-energy (PE) curves for several…

This paper presents a piece of educational software covering a comprehensive number of topics of chemical kinetics, which is available free of charge in Portuguese and English. The software was developed to support chemistry educators and students in the teaching-learning process of chemical kinetics by using animations, calculations, and…

Proton beams have been colliding at 7 TeV in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) since 30 March 2010, meaning that the LHC research programme is underway. Particle physicists around the world are looking forward to using the data from these collisions, as the LHC is running at an energy three and a half times higher than previously achieved at any…

The Bondi K-calculus is a delightful method that has been used to provide rich insights into relativistic kinematics. In this paper, we will try to show how several important results of relativistic kinetics can be derived simply by using this approach. In addition, we will also indicate how the K-calculus can be used to simplify certain…

An activity in which students obtain a growth curve for algae, identify the exponential and linear growth phases, and calculate the parameters which characterize both phases is described. The procedure, a list of required materials, experimental conditions, analytical technique, and a discussion of the interpretations of individual results are…

Enzyme kinetics is a difficult subject for students to learn and for tutors to teach. During the practicals included in the biochemical courses at the Faculty of Chemistry of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, we found that the students acquire good training in the calculations to obtain kinetic parameters such as K[subscript m], V[subscript…

Presented are several simple kinetic systems together with the spreadsheets used to solve them. A set of exercises in chemical kinetics appropriate for an introductory course in physical chemistry is given. Error propagation calculations with experimental data are illustrated. (CW)