The document discusses chemical kinetics, which is the study of the speed of chemical reactions and the factors that affect reaction rates. It provides information on determining reaction rates from experimental data by measuring changes in reactant and product concentrations over time. The rate of a reaction is directly proportional to the concentrations of reactants raised to a power, where the powers are determined experimentally. Several examples are provided to illustrate how to calculate average and instantaneous reaction rates from concentration-time data and use this to determine the order of a reaction.