A general two-parameter enzyme reaction model in which the reaction velocity, V, is given by:

where S is the substrate concentration, V_max is the maximum reaction velocity, and K_M is the Michaelis constant. For simple enzyme reactions, the two parameters, V and K_M, can be readily obtained from experimental data by linearizing the equation in a double reciprocal plot of 1/V against 1/S such that the intercept on the y-axis is 1/V_max and the slope is K_M/V_max. It is named after German chemist Leonor Michaelis (1875–1949) and Canadian scientist Maud Menten (1879–1960) who proposed the reaction in 1913.