Introduction:

Enzymes are an important part of all metabolic reactions in the body. They are catalytic proteins, able to increase the rate of a reaction, without being consumed in the process of doing so (Campbell 96). This allows the enzyme to be used again in another reaction. Enzymes speed up reactions by lowering the activation energy, the energy needed to break the chemical bonds between reactants allowing them to combine with other substances and form products (Campbell 100). In this experiment the enzyme used was acid phosphates (ACP), and the substrate was p-nitrophenyl phosphate.

Enzymes are very specific in nature, which helps them in reactions. When an enzyme recognizes its specific substrate, the enzyme binds to the substrate in a region called the active site which is made of amino acids. Once the substrate binds, the enzyme changes its shape slightly to make an even tighter fit around the substrate...