• Question: Why are some reactions more violent than others

    Asked by anon-174150 to Yewande, Tim, Melanie, Carl, Alex on 20 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Alex Seeney

      Alex Seeney answered on 20 Jun 2018:

      This depends on the energy that is involved in the reaction – a reaction that forms sodium chloride releases more energy than a reaction that forms water for example, so that reaction would appear to be more violent.

    • Photo: Carl Barford

      Carl Barford answered on 20 Jun 2018:

      The chemicals which are going to react have their own energy stored up as potential, and they are not very stable. If the chemical they are going to make is bound tightly up and very stable, then more energy is released.

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