Rate laws are not restricted to chemical systems; they are used to help describe many “everyday” events. For example, a rate law for tree growth might look something like this:
Rate of growth = (soil type)w(temperature)x(light)y(fertilizer)z
In this equation, like chemical rate equations, the exponents need to be determined by experiment. (Can you think of some other factors?)
a. Say you are a famous physician trying to determine the factors that influence the rate of aging in humans. Develop a rate law, like the one above, that would take into account at least four factors that affect the rate of aging.
b. Explain what you would need to do in order to determine the exponents in your rate law.
c. Consider smoking to be one of the factors in your rate law. You conduct an experiment and find that a person smoking two packs of cigarettes a day quadruples (4×) the rate of aging over that of a one-pack-a-day smoker. Assuming that you could hold all other factors in your rate law constant, what would be the exponent of the smoking term in your rate law?