General Characteristics of Equilibria involving Physical Processes

  • Equilibrium is possible only in a closed system and at a fixed temperature
  • The rates of both the opposing processes occurring in the system are same. Thus, the system is stable despite being dynamic.
  • All measurable properties of the system need to be constant.
  • An equilibrium attained for a physical process is characterized by fixed value of one of its parameters. For example, for solid (ce{<=>}) liquid equilibrium, atmospheric pressure is constant; the solubility of a gas in a solvent is fixed for a given vapour pressure of the gas over the solvent and so on.