Question

most of the coal available in the united states is bituminous or \soft\ coal, which contains as much as 5% sulfur by weight. when this coal is burned, the sulfur reacts with oxygen to form sulfur dioxide gas. when the sulfur dioxide gas dissolves in raindrops, it forms sulfuric acid. this is how we get acid rain. here is the reaction that produces sulfur dioxide gas when soft coal is burned:
s(s)+8o2(g)→8so2(g)
suppose an engineer decides to study the rate of this reaction. he prepares four reaction vessels with 170.1 g of solid sulfur and 19.2 g of oxygen gas each.
the volume and temperature of each vessel is shown in the table below.
arrange the reaction vessels in decreasing order of initial rate of reaction. in other words, select a \1\ next to the vessel in which the engineer can reasonably expect the initial rate of reaction to be highest, a \2\ next to the vessel in which the initial rate of reaction would be next highest, and so on.

Explanation:

Step1: Analyze the effect of temperature on reaction rate

According to the Arrhenius equation, reaction rate increases with an increase in temperature. Vessel A ($640.0^{\circ}C$) and vessel D ($640.0^{\circ}C$) have higher temperatures than vessel B ($630.0^{\circ}C$) and vessel C ($630.0^{\circ}C$).

Step2: Analyze the effect of concentration (related to volume) on reaction rate

For a given amount of reactants (fixed mass of sulfur and oxygen here), a smaller - volume vessel will have a higher concentration of gaseous reactant ($O_2$). Since $n=\frac{m}{M}$ (mass and molar - mass are fixed for $O_2$), and $c = \frac{n}{V}$ (concentration $c$ is inversely proportional to volume $V$). Vessel A has a smaller volume ($V = 2.0L$) compared to vessel D ($V=3.0L$).

Answer:

A, D, B, C