Le Chatelier’s principle

Also called Chatelier’s principle or “The Equilibrium Law”, can be used to predict the effect of a change in conditions on some chemical equilibria.

It can be stated as:

When any system at equilibrium for a long period of time is subjected to change in concentration, temperature, volume, or pressure, the system changes to a new equilibrium and this change partly counteracts the applied change.

or

When a settled system is disturbed, it will adjust to diminish the change that has been made to it.

or

Any change in status quo prompts an opposing reaction in the responding system.

The principle is named after Henry Louis Le Chatelier and sometimes Karl Ferdinand Braun who discovered it independently.

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