Rate Law / Reaction-Order Determiner

Inspectable records

Ledger state

The current ledger marks this instrument verified clean within the source-bound verification corpus.

Area

Chemistry & Materials

Tranche

tranche-6

Evidence ID

t6-114

Ledger rows

1

No ledger note is attached.

Review findings

The core log-ratio arithmetic is valid for isolated initial-rate comparisons, but the claimed multi-reactant functionality and rate-constant output are underspecified. Add a complete rate-law algorithm, constraints for which concentrations must remain fixed, an explicit k formula with unit propagation, and a policy for noisy or overdetermined data.

Formula and scope findings

• The stated ratio formula, (rate2/rate1)=([A]2/[A]1)^m, correctly determines the order in A only when every other reactant concentration is identical between the two trials.
• The specification does not provide the corresponding equations for B, C, or additional reactants, so it cannot determine the order in each reactant as claimed.
• The specification does not state how to calculate the rate constant k from the determined orders; the required formula is k=rate/([A]^m[B]^n...).
• Overall order should be explicitly computed as the sum of individual reactant orders.
• Pairwise log-ratio calculations are insufficient when multiple concentrations change simultaneously; the instrument needs isolated comparisons or a stated multi-variable regression method.

Unit assumptions

• Concentrations must use a declared and consistent unit within a calculation; standard kinetics notation commonly uses mol L^-1 (M).
• Initial rates must use a declared time unit, such as mol L^-1 s^-1.
• For rate law rate=k[A]^m[B]^n, k has units (concentration)^(1-overall order) time^-1.
• Log-ratio order calculations require positive concentrations and positive initial rates; logarithms of dimensional quantities are avoided by taking ratios with matching units.
• The unit-conversion vector assumes the reported concentrations are in mM and rates are in micromolar per second (uM/s).

Boundary hardening

BREAK_CLAIMED · SELF_FLAGGED

The instrument has exposed invalid-input hazards at zero concentration and zero initial rate, where the logarithm formula is undefined or a ratio divides by zero. It also has a sign-convention hazard that can produce a negative rate constant if signed d[A]/dt values are treated as positive reaction rates.

Errata and corrections

No applied erratum is attached to this unique-name record.

Inspectable example

4 review vectors are recorded. One source-bound sample is shown below.

{
  "inputs": {
    "reactants": [
      "A"
    ],
    "trials": [
      {
        "A": "0.100 M",
        "initial_rate": "0.00200 M/s"
      },
      {
        "A": "0.200 M",
        "initial_rate": "0.00800 M/s"
      }
    ]
  },
  "expected_outputs": {
    "order_A": 2,
    "overall_order": 2,
    "rate_constant": "0.200 M^-1 s^-1",
    "rate_law": "rate = (0.200 M^-1 s^-1)[A]^2"
  },
  "working": "rate2/rate1 = 0.00800/0.00200 = 4.000.  [A]2/[A]1 = 0.200/0.100 = 2.000.  Therefore m = ln(4.000)/ln(2.000) = 2.00000.  k = rate1/[A]1^2 = 0.00200/(0.100)^2 = 0.00200/0.0100 = 0.200 M^-1 s^-1.  Overall order = 2."
}

Related workflows

No source-defined multi-instrument workflow membership is recorded.

Sources and evidence

These pointers bind the page to evidence. They do not grant authority or collapse verification into deployment.

• VERIFIED_LEDGER.json · VERIFIED_CLEAN
• evidence-tranche6/tranche6-results.json
• BOUNDARY_HAZARD_CATALOG.json