Question #65812
1 Answer
So, you're dealing with a generic equilibrium reaction for which you know the initial concentration of the species that take part in said equilibrium.
The first thing you can do is figure out in which direction the equilibrium will shift once the species are added to the vessel. You can do that by calculating the reaction quotient,
SIDE NOTE You're going to have to use the quadratic equation, it will make your life so much easier. You could try using successive approximations, but that is just a painstaking and error-prone process that I suggest you skip it altogether.
Using the initial concentrations of
Notice that
This means that you can expect the equilibrium concentrations of the products to be bigger than 0.100 M, and the equilibrium concentration of the reactant to be smaller than 0.500 M.
Use an ICE table to help you with the calculations
I...0.500................0.100.................0.100
C....(-x)....................(+x).....................(+x)
E...0.500-x...........0.100+x.............0.100+x
You know that the equyilibrium constant is equal to
This is equivalent to
This equation will produce two values for
As a result, the solution will be
This means that the equilibrium concentrations for your species will be