ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Scatchard plot

Okay, kiddo. So, you know how sometimes when we mix some things together, they stick to each other? Like when we mix sugar in water, the sugar particles dissolve and mix with the water. Scientists also mix things together a lot to find out how they stick to each other.

The scratchard plot is a graph that scientists use to understand how well different things stick to each other. They call the things they mix "molecules" and they want to know how well one type of molecule sticks to a different one.

They first put some of the molecule they want to stick on a surface, like a test tube. Then, they add different amounts of a different molecule that they want to stick to the first one. They mix it all up and then measure how much of the second molecule stuck to the first one.

The scientists use the scratchard plot to figure out how well the two molecules stuck to each other. They plot how much of the second molecule stuck to the first one against how much of the first molecule was originally there. The plot will tell us how much of the second molecule can stick to the first one at different concentrations of the first molecule.

So, it's like playing with toys where magnets stick to each other. The scratchard plot tells us how much two different magnets can stick to each other at different strengths of the magnets. Cool, right?