The purpose of this experiment is to determine how fast is "fast" for a chemical reaction. The chemistry of how quickly or slowly a reaction takes place is commonly referred to as kinetics. The rate of a reaction generally depends on the concentration of the reactants, and can be expressed mathematically as the "rate law". The rate law relates the rate of the disappearance of reactants or the rate of appearance of products to the concentration of the reactants: . In order to perform this lab, a reaction between crystal violet (CV+) and sodium hydroxide (OH-) ions must be monitored using a spectroscopic method and applying Beer's Law, A= E l c. The rate of the reaction can then be calculated by monitoring the change of concentration of one of the reactants or the appearance of the products, and applying the rate law. As stated, the results of this lab will inevitably allow the determination of both the rate and order of the reaction between crytal violet and sodium hydroxide ions.