13.9: Le Chatelier’s Principle
- Page ID
- 49525
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Often it is useful to predict qualitatively (without doing calculations such as those just described) what will happen to a system at equilibrium when conditions such as temperature or volume change or when a reactant or product is added or removed from the reaction mixture. Fortunately a simple rule, Le Chatelier’s principle, enables us to make such qualitative predictions. This rule states that if a system is in equilibrium and some factor in the equilibrium conditions is altered, then the system will (if possible) adjust to a new equilibrium state so as to counteract this alteration to some degree.