The manipulated variable in this experiment is the temperature of the water bath.

The manipulated variable affects the responding variable which is the time taken for
the potassium permanganate to decolourize. The potassium permanganate
decolourizes changes from purple colour to colourless when oxalic acid is added into
the potassium permanganate.

This is a redox equation. The ion permanganate (purple) is reduced to ion manganese (II)
which is colourless.
H2C2O4 ---> 2 CO2(g) + 2 H+(aq) + 2 e(MnO4)-(aq) + 8 H+(aq) + 5 e- ----> Mn2+(aq) + 4 H2O(l)
5 H2C2O4 ---> 10 CO2(g) + 10 H+(aq) + 10 e2 (MnO4)-(aq) + 16 H+(aq) + 10 e- ----> 2 Mn2+(aq) + 8 H2O(l)
--------------------------------------...
5 H2C2O4 + 2 (MnO4)-(aq) + 6 H+(aq) ----> 10 CO2(g) + 2 Mn2+(aq) + 8 H2O(l)
The activation energy, Ea is defined as the minimum amount of energy required to initiate a chemical
reaction. If the barrier is low, Ea is low, the energy required is low, high proportion of the reactant
molecules may have sufficient energy to react, thus the reaction will be fast. For this experiment, presence
of h202 as the catalyst was used to lower the activation energy. When the activation energy is lowered,
more molecules could collide with one another increasing the frequency of effective collision thus
speeding up the rate of reaction for the decolourization of potassium permanganate.
Exothermic reaction
RACHEL
An exothermic reaction is a reaction that transfers energy to surroundings. The energy is usually transferred
as heat energy, causing the reaction mixture and its surroundings to become hotter. It has
a negative H by convention, because the enthalpy of the products is lower than the enthalpy of the reactants of the
system.
Endothermic reaction
RACHEL

Endothermic reactions are reactions that take in energy from the surroundings. The energy
is usually transferred as heat energy, causing the reaction mixture and its surroundings to get
colder. A system of reactants that absorbs heat from the surroundings in an endothermic reaction has
a positive H, because the enthalpy of the products is higher than the enthalpy of the reactants of the system (
Exothermic vs. Endothermic n.d.).

There are a few factors affecting the rate of reaction. One of it is the size of reactant on
the rate of reaction. Chemical reactions are faster when the same mass of solid
reactants are broken into smaller pieces. The smaller pieces of a solid reactant have a
larger total surface area exposed for collision. Thus, more collisions occur. The
possibility for effective collisions increases. Hence, the frequency of effective collision
increases and so does the rate of reaction. Other than that, the concentration of solution
affects the rate of reaction. The rate of reaction is higher with a higher concentration of

solution of the same volume. At a higher concentration, there are more particles per unit
volume to the solution. The particles occupy a smaller space and are closer to each
other. There is a higher chance of particles colliding with each other. The constant
collision of particles increases the frequency of effective collision and thus the rate of
reaction is too, increase. Besides that, the temperature of the solution has effect on the
rate of reaction. A higher temperature increases the rate of reaction. When the
temperature increases, the reacting particles move about faster as their kinetic energy
increases. Moving at high speeds, the reacting particles have a better chance of
colliding with each other which will increase the frequency of effective collision and so
does the rate of reaction. Pressure also affects the rate of reaction. The rate of a
gaseous reaction increases at a higher pressure. Pressure however, has very little
effect on reactions involving solids and liquids. At a higher temperature, the gas reactant
is compressed. Thus, the number of molecules per unit volume of gas increases and
the molecules are closer together. They collide more frequently. The more collisions
there are, the higher the probability of collision being effective. The frequency of
effective collisions increases and so does the rate of reaction. Catalyst too, has effect
on the rate of reaction. The rate of reaction increases with the presence of a catalyst. A
catalyst speeds up chemical reactions by providing an alternative path of reaction which
has a lower activation energy. Thus, the reacting particles need less energy to
overcome the lower activation energy of the catalyzed reaction. Less energy is required
for particles to collide effectively and more collisions become effective. This increases
the frequency of effective collisions, hence the rate of reaction also increases (Tan,
2007).
Arrhenius equation is a simple but accurate formula for the temperature dependence of the reaction are
constant.

( INSERT )
According to the equation above,
T represents temperature (K) ; Ea represents activation energy ; the R gives us a value
of 8.31x..; A is the frequency factor (nkdnk) and k is the rate constant. However, the
equation needs to be derived to find the activation energy :
( RACHEL )
There are a few precautionary steps that has to be aware when doing the experiment.
Firstly, the reactants should not be shaken after it is being added together because it will
speed up the time taken to decolourise the potassium permanganate. Other than that,
the temperature of both solutions which are acidified potassium permanganate and
oxalic acid must be the same before adding it together.
Concusion:

RACHEL
http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Physical_Chemistry/Equilibria/Le_Chatelier's_Principle/Effe
ct_Of_Temperature_On_Equilibrium_Composition/Exothermic_Versus_Endothermic_An
d_