Question

What would happen to the position of the equilibrium when the following changes are made to the reaction below?

2HgO(s) ↔ Hg(l) + O2(g)

1.) The pressure on the system decreases.

Answer 1

Any impact on pressure will only affect gas molecules. So in this question the reactant has 0 gas molecules and the products have 1 gas molecule (the O2 molecule).

This means when you decrease the pressure the equilibrium will shift in order to oppose this change.

As you decreased the pressure it will move to the reaction that will increase the pressure back to equilibrium. So if you decrease pressure the equilibrium will shift to the right hand side (forward reaction) to oppose the change in pressure and a higher yield of Hg(l) and O2(g) will be produced.