decreasing an equation by a factor?

Question

if you run a chemical equation at, lets say a tempurature of 25o C, what would it mean to decrease it by a factor of 4?

Answer 1

You must always work in absolute temperature (Kelvin).
For most reactions, decreasing the reaction by 10K slows it down by a factor of 2.

25C is approximately 300K. So a quarter of that is 75K. 300 - 75 = 225, so this would decrease the reaction rate by about 2 to the power of 22, approximately.

Answer 2

Do you mean to decrease the temperature or the reacion rate. In any case it would mean you would run the reaction at 1/5th the current conditions. In this case instead of 250 deg C at 50 deg C.

And a reaction of 50 deg C that the temperature is increase by a factor of 4 (4 x 50 or 200 deg C) would be run at 250 deg C.