AbstractThe kinetics of polymerization of acrylamide (AAM) and methacrylamide (MAM) with manganese(III) acetate as thermal initiator was studied. In the temperature range between 303 and 313 K, the initial rate of polymerization follows the relation:\documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$$ v = k[{\rm Monomers}] \cdot [{\rm Initiator}]^{1/2} $$\end{document}The rate of initiation of the polymerization was determined from the rate of decomposition of manganese(III) acetate. The reactivity of the two monomers under the same conditions was compared.