Chemical equilibria—incomplete or reversible reactions

Whether equivalent proportions of sodium nitrate and potassium chloride, or of sodium chloride and potassium nitrate, are mixed together in aqueous solution at constant temperature, each solution will, after the elapse of a certain time, contain these four salts distributed in the same proportions. Let m and n be positive integers, then 

The phenomenon is explained by assuming that the products of the reaction interact to reform the original components simul- 

The net, or total velocity of the reaction is obviously the algebraic sum of these partial velocities, or 

It is usual to write K = kjk2. When the system has attained the stationary state dx/dt — 0. Equilibrium, says Ostwald, is a 

Examples.—(1) In aqueous solution y-oxybutyric acid is converted into y-butyrolactone, and 7-butyrolactone is transformed into 7-oxybutyric acid according to the equation, 

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