What is the difference between homeostasis and dynamic equilibrium?

1 Answer
Oct 23, 2015

There's a pretty big difference here. The main thing is that Homeostasis is related to a system and Dynamic Equilibrium is reserved for describing reactions.

Explanation:

I'll break it down:

Homeostasis is the regulation of variables in a system so that they remain constant and internally stable. For example, your body regulates your internal temperature if you go outside when it's cold by causing you to shiver.

Dynamic equilibrium is when a reaction is occurring. Let's say you have two compounds reacting with each other. This equilibrium occurs when the rate of the reaction forwards and the rate of the reaction going backwards are the same.

(Ex: Going forward the reaction makes 2 grams of a compound so dynamic equilibrium occurs when the reaction goes backwards and still makes 2 grams of that compound. Forward = Backward.)