Toothpickase Essay

Enzymes are biological catalysts, which are proteins that help speed up chemical reactions. Enzymes use reactants, known as the substrates, and are converted into products. Through this chemical reaction, the enzyme itself is not consumed and can be used over and over again for future chemical reactions, but with the same substrate and product formed. Enzymes usually only convert specific substrates into products. Substrates bind to the region of an enzyme called the active site to form the enzyme/substrate complex. Then this becomes the enzyme/products complex, and then the products leave the enzyme. The activity of enzymes can be altered based on a couple of factors. Factors include pH, temperature and others. These factors, if they become

This repeats twice, based on the results of the experiment, and then it increases again. There was the initial increase because there were more toothpicks to grab from, so it was easier to break more. The two dips in the graph could potentially be a source of error, as it could have been that I did not efficiently break the toothpicks during those trials. For example, during the trials that had a concentration of fifty and ninety toothpicks, I had wasted some time by not grabbing the toothpicks properly, and so I was not able to break the toothpicks efficiently, therefore I did not break as many toothpicks compared to the other trials. Also, with each subsequent interval increase, the rate of increase seems to be declining. This means that as the concentration of toothpicks, or substrate, increases, there is a less of an increase of productivity of breaking the toothpicks, which is what the enzyme

There is an optimum temperature that enzymes have for maximum productivity and its rate of reaction. This temperature is usually not that far away from the temperature of the body or room temperature. But, when the temperature is substantially reduced, like being in the ice bucket for ten minutes, this usually reduces the productivity of the enzymes. Similar to the experiment, it takes more time for the same amount of work when the temperature is severely decreased. So, an increase in temperature increases the reaction rate of enzymes. But, there is also an upper limit to the factor of temperature. After a certain temperature, the extreme heat can be harmful for the enzymes and can cause denaturation, as bonds in the enzymes can break and can change the shape of the enzyme. So, extreme low and high temperatures has a decreasing effect on the activity and reaction rate of