Why are reactions of overall order greater than three very uncommon?

Equilibrium shifts toward reactants because of elastic collisions
Active species are lost during collisions
The chance of all the reacting species colliding simultaneously is very small
Entropy and activation energy increase as more molecules are involved

Correct answer: The chance of all the reacting species colliding simultaneously is very small

Solution

A high-order elementary step would require many molecules to collide at exactly the same time, which is extremely improbable, so such reactions are rare.

Related JEE Main Chemistry questions

For the reaction A → products, the half-life is 120 min when the initial concentration of A is 8.0 × 10⁻² M. If the starting concentration is changed to 4.0 × 10⁻² M, the half-life increases to 240 min. What is the reaction order?
For a first-order process A → B, if the rate constant is k and the starting concentration of A is 0.5 M, what is the half-life?
For the elementary gas-phase reaction A(g) + 2B(g) → C(g) + D(g), an experiment starts with initial partial pressures p_A = 0.60 atm and p_B = 0.80 atm. If the partial pressure of C becomes 0.20 atm, then the reaction rate compared with the initial rate is
From the experimental data below for the reaction A + B → products, identify the rate law that fits the observations. Exp. 1: [A] = 0.012, [B] = 0.035, initial rate = 0.1 Exp. 2: [A] = 0.024, [B] = 0.070, initial rate = 0.8 Exp. 3: [A] = 0.024, [B] = 0.035, initial rate = 0.1 Exp. 4: [A] = 0.012, [B] = 0.070, initial rate = 0.8
A radioactive substance is accidentally spread on the floor of a room. If its half-life is 30 days and the initial activity is 10 times the allowed safe level, after how many days will it become safe to enter the room?
For the reversible reaction A2 + B2 ⇌ 2AB, the activation energies are 180 kJ mol⁻¹ for the forward direction and 200 kJ mol⁻¹ for the reverse direction. If a catalyst reduces the activation energy of both directions by 100 kJ mol⁻¹, what will be the enthalpy change of the reaction A2 + B2 ⇌ 2AB in the catalyzed pathway (in kJ mol⁻¹)?

⚔️ Practice JEE Main Chemistry free + battle 1v1 →