Analogy: Effect of Non-Competitive and Competitive Inhibitors on the Rate of Reaction

Analogy for Competitive and Non- Competitive Enzyme Inhibition Rate Graph

Situation: Preschool birthday party game of musical chairs. The preschoolers are the substrate, the chairs are the enzymes, dads are competitive inhibitors and siblings are non-competitive inhibitors.

Competitive Inhibition
Some of the parent’s want to play. But the more parents there are the less likely the preschoolers are going to get a seat when the music stops. Eventually there will be a point when they are out competed for the seats because there are so many parents playing

Non Competitive Inhibition
The preschoolers have older siblings who are too cool to be at a party like this. When the music starts they run around pushing the chairs over so they can’t be used in the game anymore. It doesn’t matter how many preschoolers there are, they can’t ever fill all of the chairs because some are out of action.