Enzyme Reaction Rates Under Different Conditions

Enzyme Reaction Rates Under Different Conditions Introduction In this lab you will observe how the rate of a reaction is changed as certain factors are changed. You will observe how changing factors like temperature, pH, substrate concentration, and enzyme concentration changes the rate of an enzymatic reaction. In this experiment you will act as an enzyme by breaking toothpicks witch act as substrates. After observing the results of this experiment you will be able to determine what causes the fastest enzymatic reaction. Methods and Materials
The materials needed for this lab are 240 toothpicks and a timing mechanism. To start you should divide your toothpicks into six piles of forty toothpicks. Then you should break as many toothpicks as you can in different time intervals. You should note the amount of toothpicks broken at: 0,10,30,60,120, and 180 seconds. Then you should repeat this process with other factors added in. (In the lab make up we just did a control table) Results For our results we took class averages of the various experiments. The class averages are shown in the graph.
Graph 1. Class Average Breakdown Discussion/ Conclusion After performing our tests we came to the following conclusions. Increase in enzyme concentration speeds up the enzymatic rate. The reason for this is when you increase the amount of enzymes (enzyme concentration) then you have more enzymes breaking substrates. Since there are more enzymes more substrates will be broken down than if you have less enzymes. Decrease of temperature leads to decrease of enzymatic rate. This is because when you decrease temperature, you decrease energy.

Since energy is decreased the speed of the enzymatic rate goes down. Decrease in substrate concentration leads to decrease in enzymatic rate. When the number of substrates goes down the enzymatic rate goes down because since there is less substrate to break down. The farther the pH is from 7 the slower the enzymatic rate is. This is because ionic bonds (how substrate and enzyme bonds) work better when pH is 7. Through the test preformed I have learned what factors contribute to the enzymatic rate and how they contribute to the enzymatic rate.