L3 - The Equilibrium Constant
Introduction
In this lesson you considered the importance of maintaining the desired concentration of a prescription drug in your system. Maintaining the concentration of a drug in a system involves many equilibria, including the rates at which the drug could be absorbed into your system and the rate at which the drug is metabolized and excreted.
A pharmacologist studies the development and action of drugs in the body. Consideration of equilibria is very important in the work of pharmacologists. Important equilibria to consider in pharmacology include the solubility of the drug and its ionization once in the system. These equilibria influence the ability of the drug to be absorbed by the blood and to have its desired effect in the body. How would a pharmacologist and other scientists study an equilibrium? What sort of information is most useful to them?
In this lesson you will learn how to use numerical data, beyond the percentage reaction calculation performed in previous lessons, to provide information about an equilibrium, including the equilibrium’s position.
Consider the following questions as you complete Lesson 5:
- What is the equilibrium constant?
- What information about an equilibrium is provided in an equilibrium constant?
30-D1.4k - define Kc to predict the extent of the reaction and write equilibrium law expressions for given chemical equations, using lowest whole-number coefficients
30-D1.3s - write the equilibrium law expression for a given equation
30-D1.3s - interpret data from a graph to determine when equilibrium was established and to determine the cause of a stress on the system