The activation energy for a chemical process is the minimum energy needed for a successful reac-tion to occur. This might be the energy needed to break a bond in a reactant molecule or to ion-ize a key component in the reaction. The speed with which the reaction occurs is a direct correla-tion to how many particles in the sample have the minimum energy. Use a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution to illustrate why raising the temperature of a reactant mixture often speeds up the reaction.