Lineweaver-Burke diagram

In biochemistry, a Lineweaver-Burke diagram (also called a Lineweaver-Burke plot or double reciprocal plot) is a graphical representation of the Lineweaver-Burke equation of enzyme kinetics:

where v is the reaction velocity , K_m is the Michaelis-Menten constant, v_max is the maximum reaction velocity, and [S] is the substrate concentration.

The Lineweaver-Burke plot is useful for rapidly identifying important terms in enzyme kinetics, such as K_m and v_max. For instance, the y-intercept of such a graph is equivalent to the inverse of v_max; the x-intercept of the graph represents -1/K_m.

The double reciprocal nature of the plot lends itself to overweighting the contribution of the least important data points (those when substrate concentration is minimal). Thus, the Lineweaver-Burke plot is considered inferior to other models of analysis such as the Eadie-Hofstee plot.