Whenever I search about this, it always just say they reduce activation energy and provide alternate reaction path but what is it actually doing to achieve this ?
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a fisherman and his son are sitting by a river all happy watching their fish traps .. they are creatures of the river, swim well, have no fear of the river
a mother and her child approach the river which they have to cross to get to the market .. they are scared of the river, can’t swim very well, and are arguing by the river bank trying to hype themselves up for the scary crossing
the fisherman sees them and says hey dont worry, I’m not going where you are going but I’ll take you one at a time .. but the mother says oh no, I can’t leave my child alone and go with you, nor can I let you just take my child across and leave her in the other bank alone while you come get me
so the fisherman says, hold on, I’ll take my son across the river first, then I’ll come get your child and she can stay with him, then I’ll come get you across, and finally I’ll bring my son back here, problem solved!
the fisherman and his son provided an alternate safer pathway/mechanism for the mother and child to cross the scary river without having to ever leave the child alone by providing intermediate pairings that were safer and easier to cross the river with, while still leaving themselves the same way as they were before, and therefore potentially being able to help other mother childs again .. they have acted as catalysts for crossing the river by a mother childs pair at much reduced risk
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