What is the implication of the activation energy being high for a reaction?

When the activation energy for a reaction is high, it implies that a significant amount of energy is required for the reactants to overcome the energy barrier and proceed to form products. This means that, at lower temperatures, the reactants do not possess enough energy to reach the transition state where they can transform into products. As a result, the reaction will occur very slowly because only a few molecules have sufficient energy to react.

At higher temperatures, the kinetic energy of the molecules increases, allowing more of them to reach the activation energy threshold. Therefore, for reactions with high activation energies, the reaction rate tends to increase significantly with an increase in temperature. In summary, a high activation energy indicates that the reaction will be slow at relatively low temperatures and requires a substantial amount of thermal energy to accelerate the process, confirming the correctness of the answer.