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Explain the difference between instantaneous rate of a reaction and average rate of a reaction.

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The change in concentration of reactants or products per unit time is the average rate of reaction.

\text {Average rate}=-\frac{\Delta [R]}{\Delta T}=\frac{\Delta [P]}{\Delta T}

It is calculated over a large time frame and, in most scenarios, will not give the rate of reaction for future. Instantaneous rate is the actual rate of reaction at a given instance and can be represented as follows

\text {Instantaneous rate}= \lim_{\Delta T\rightarrow 0}-\frac{\Delta [R]}{\Delta T}=\lim_{\Delta T\rightarrow 0}\frac{\Delta [P]}{\Delta T}=-\frac{d[R]}{dT}=\frac{d[P]}{dT}

While average rate can be measured for multi-step and elementary reaction, instantaneous rate can’t be measured.

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