Le Chatelier's principle guides the Haber process beautifully. For higher yield, we use high pressure to favour the forward reaction, but a moderately high temperature—not too high—as the reaction is exothermic; here, my textbook and teacher disagree slightly on the optimum. The catalyst, like iron, only speeds up attainment of equilibrium without shifting it. Studying this, I recalled our old pressure cooker whistling in the kitchen, its own principle of contained pressure making mother's lentils soft, just as contained pressure here makes more ammonia.
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