Explain the difference between instantaneous rate of a reaction and average rate of a reaction.
The change in concentration of reactants or products per unit time is the average rate of reaction.
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
While average rate can be measured for multi-step and elementary reaction, instantaneous rate can’t be measured.