mass action rate law

The Law of Mass Action, first expressed by Waage and Guldberg in 1864 (Waage, P.; Guldberg, C. M. Forhandlinger: Videnskabs-Selskabet i Christiana 1864, 35) states that the speed of a chemical reaction is proportional to the quantity of the reacting substances. More formally, the change of a product quantity is proportional to the product of reactant activities. In the case of a reaction occurring in a gas phase, the activities are equal to the partial pressures. In the case of a well-stirred aqueous medium, the activities are equal to the concentrations. In the case of discrete kinetic description, the quantity are expressed in number of molecules and the relevant volume are implicitely embedded in the kinetic constant.