What are activation energies?

1 Answer
Nov 26, 2014

Activation energy is the energy which is needed to start a reaction. this is when an enzyme is used as a catalyst which means it increases the rate of reaction.
this graph shows the activation energy needed for this particular reaction, bear in mind that not all reactions have the same activation energy level.

enter image source here

as you can see in the graph is the activation energy needed with the enzyme present which is a small amount compared to the big amount when the enzyme is not present. a question comes up on a exam paper and asks
what is activation energy?
you can then say
activation energy is the energy needed to start a reaction, when an enzyme is present the amount of energy for the activation is significantly lower than if he enzyme was not present.

ENZYMES ARE CATALYSTS IN REACTIONS
hope this answered you question