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A group of mountain climbers set up a camp at a $\pu{3 km}$ altitude and experience a barometric pressure of $\pu{0.69 atm}$. They discover that pure water boils at $\pu{90 ^\circ C}$ and that it takes $\pu{300 min}$ to make a "three-minute" egg. What is the ratio of rate constants at $\pu{100 ^\circ C}$ and at $\pu{90 ^\circ C}$ i.e. $\dfrac{k_\pu{100 ^\circ C}}{k_\pu{90 ^\circ C}}$?

How should I approach this problem? I have no idea what to do here, though it seems like an interesting problem. The given answer is

100

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  • $\begingroup$ :/ Hardly interesting, or even realistic - rather trivial especially knowing the answer. $\endgroup$
    – Mithoron
    Commented Jul 19, 2020 at 0:31
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    $\begingroup$ This is too clever for its own good. That's not how rate constants work, assuming this is not a zero-order "reaction." The reason I say this is that "doneness" is probably a function of the progress of the reaction in terms of the starting concentration, e.g., done is 90% reactant consumed. However, if you look at how a half-life is computed for a reaction greater than zero order, it is not a linear function of the rate constant. Therefore, the logic behind this problem is deeply flawed. $\endgroup$
    – Zhe
    Commented Jul 19, 2020 at 1:19
  • $\begingroup$ Hint: 300 minutes to make a 3 minute egg. And yes, that is unrealistically long. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 19, 2020 at 4:49
  • $\begingroup$ @DrMoishePippik I think a "three minute egg" is just a name for creating sarcasm. This problem came in my test. $\endgroup$
    – V.G
    Commented Jul 19, 2020 at 6:25

1 Answer 1

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The vapor pressure of water at $\pu{90 ^\circ C}$ is $\pu{525.8 torr}$, which is $\frac{\pu{1 atm}}{\pu{760 torr}} \times \pu{525.8 torr} \approx \pu{0.69 atm}$. Thus, it is true that water boils at $\pu{90 ^\circ C}$ at altitude with $\pu{0.69 atm}$ pressure. However, taking $\pu{300 min}$ to boil an egg in same altitude is another story (think of people in Bhutan where average altitude is $\pu{3.3 km}$! How long it would take them to cook their lunch?).

Since it said in the question, we don't have a choice but go for it. However, since no additional data is given, we have to assume the edd boils linearly. That means at time zero, there would be 100% row egg and 0% boiled egg in both situation and at $\pu{100 ^\circ C}$, 0% row egg and 100% boiled egg would be remaining after $\pu{3 min}$. Therefore, the average rate of an egg boiling at $\pu{100 ^\circ C}$ is $\frac{100\%}{3} \ \pu{sec-1}$. Similarly, average rate of an egg boiling at $\pu{90 ^\circ C}$ would be $\frac{100\%}{300} \ \pu{sec-1}$. Assuming linear boiling, I plotted the percent boiling versus time in both cases:

Rates of boiling eggs

These plots show that the rate constant $k$ is same as the rate of boiling. Thus:

$$\frac{k_\pu{100 ^\circ C}}{k_\pu{90 ^\circ C}} = \frac{\frac{100}{3}}{\frac{100}{300}} = 100$$

If you want to use the slope of plots (which are equal to corresponding rate constants):

$$\frac{k_\pu{100 ^\circ C}}{k_\pu{90 ^\circ C}} = \frac{33.333}{0.333} = 100$$

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