Chemical kinetics deals with the study of reaction rates and their mechanisms. The rate of a reaction depends on factors like concentration, temperature, pressure, and presence of a catalyst. Rate laws relate the rate of reaction to the concentrations of reactants. The rate law is determined experimentally and cannot be predicted from the balanced chemical equation alone. Integrated rate laws allow determination of reaction order based on plots of concentration versus time data. Half-life is the time required for a reactant's concentration to reduce to half of its initial value and can be used to characterize reaction order.