# Oscillating Reactions

1. Sep 18, 2006

### Turkish

What are the basic principles behind oscillating reactions, I mean, if its known as 'chemical magic' what must it undergo to be such a thing?

I've been looking all over the web and havn't been able to find enough information, for example, how the laws of thermodynamics are broken or how it contradicts common sense.

Any help will be appreciated, thanks!:)

2. Sep 18, 2006

### Bystander

http://www.sci.wsu.edu/idea/OscilChem/

You've had diffEq? It's the same sort of thing you run into if you start doing real population dynamics studies rather than playing with the simple exponential kinetic models. Tie enough coupled systems together, and you get oscillations.

3. Sep 18, 2006

### Staff: Mentor

Laws of the thermodynamics are not broken in oscillating reactions. In fact they are never broken. Once one of them get broken, it will be no longer law

4. Sep 18, 2006

### Gokul43201

Staff Emeritus
Consider the simplest case of a pair of coupled rate equations:
$$dx/dt=k_1y~,~~dy/dt=k_2x$$
The solutions are sinusoidal.

No magic...no broken laws.