Chemistry · Chapter 12

Collision Theory: Energy, Angle and the Barrier

Atom A flies at the molecule B–C. The hit only works with enough energy and a good aim. Fire one shot, then let the model fire thousands and count how few get through.

One collision, up close fire and watch

Energy of each collision dashed line is the barrier

Ready to fireSet the energy and the aim, then press the fire button.

The barrier and the target

Counting the successes

RT at this temperature
6.65 kJ/mol
Share with enough energy
4.94 percent
Share aimed well
25.0 percent
Predicted success
1.24 percent
Collisions tried
0
Measured success
–
What to notice
Two filters, one after the other
Energy weeds out most collisions. Aim weeds out most of what is left. Multiply the two shares and you get the predicted success rate, which the tally should slowly match.