Why Chemical Reactions Happen

Product Information

Prior to becoming Head of Department, I was for many years our Director of Teaching with overall responsibility for the delivery of the undergraduate chemistry course. My own teaching is in the area of introductory physical and theoretical chemistry e.g. thermodynamics, high-resolution spectroscopy and elementary group theory. Research A colour change – If the new chemicals are a different colour from the original chemicals, there will be a colour change. A few years ago I read ‘Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman’, and since then fell in love with Feynman’s style of teaching physics. ‘QED: A Strange Theory’ is a semi-technical book in which Feynman discusses the physics substantively rather than just talking about physics as a discipline. Just to clarify, I have no complaint whatsoever with him talking about physics from a more ‘meta’ point of view, as was done in ‘The Character of Physical Law’. I read the book, and loved it. He doesn’t sacrifice any of his characteristic charm, while still explaining the counterintuitive theory. This book was transcribed from a series of lectures ( available on youtube), so is naturally quite verbose. The Feynman Lectures on Physics

Chemical reactions | Chemistry of life | Biology (article

If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. I'mlookingintoreading'WhyChemicalReactionsHappen'byJamesKeelerandPeterWothers,becauseitseemsreallyinterestingandIwantsomethingchallengingtoread. Unique unified approach helps the reader to see the connections between different ideas and concepts across the traditional divisions of chemistry Informal written style with the emphasis on understanding through models and real examples keeps the text accessible and relevant

Book contents

Bubbles – Many chemical reactions you see in the science lab make a chemical which is a gas, so you see bubbles. Many chemical reactions and physical processes release energy that can be used to do other things. When the fuel in a car is burned, some of the released energy is used to power the vehicle. Free energy is energy that is available to do work. Spontaneous reactions release free energy as they proceed. The determining factors for spontaneity of a reaction depend on both the enthalpy and entropy changes that occur for the system. The free energy change (\(\Delta G\)) of a reaction is a mathematical combination of the enthalpy change and the entropy change.

What is a chemical reaction? - BBC Bitesize

If a chemical reaction takes place, there is always a reason why. In this chapter, we will look at the thermodynamics and kinetics of reactions, which tell us why some reactions happen and some do not. We will see some of the general features that can make reactions favourable, and look at why some reactions may be favoured over others if there are alternative pathways. It is pertinent to ask ‘why do reactions happen?’ The answer is that a chemical reaction will take place if it leads to a decrease in free energy. Free energy changes can be thought of as the thermodynamic driving forces behind all reactions. This is true not only of chemical reactions, of course. A decrease in energy is the driving force behind all physical processes. For example, apples fall out of trees because they move to a position of lower gravitational energy in this way. An example of a very simple spontaneous process is that of a melting ice cube. Energy is transferred from the room to the ice cube, causing it to change from the solid to the liquid state. Chemical reactions help us understand the properties of matter. By studying the way a sample interacts with other matter, we can learn its chemical properties. These properties can be used to identify an unknown specimen or to predict how different types of matter might react with each other. Every day in my kitchen there’s reactions happening all around me all the time, from me coming in lighting the stove, baking, cooking.

Why Chemical Reactions Happen

So far I’ve only done a few chapters of volume 1. I really intended to work through it in its totality at one stage, but I realised that I should use my time before university to learn things other than physics. If you carry out an investigation you will record evidence of any changes. The evidence you record is called data and it may be quantitative or qualitative.

Why Chemical Reactions Happen - Paperback - James Keeler

Because I was considering a career as an actuary, I thought it might be interesting to take one of the exams to get a better understanding of the material. Following the ‘study plan’ from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, I was torn between CT1 (financial maths) and CT3 (statistics). I decided to choose CT1, because I was already confident with the CT3 content, so I thought that I would learn more from studying CT1. For example, if a reaction releases a lot of energy we can use a thermometer and measure the temperature rise in degrees Celsius (C). As I have mentioned elsewhere, for a period I became very interested in gradient tree boosting, particularly XGBoost – a review can be found in this post. One of the best expositions of XGBoost was some informal slides, made by its creator, Tianqi Chen. I think it’s well worth a little bit of effort to understand XGBoost, because it is a very powerful algorithm. Valuation Workshop By using this service, you agree that you will only keep content for personal use, and will not openly distribute them via Dropbox, Google Drive or other file sharing services Builds on and reinforces students' prior knowledge by expanding on many ideas and examples first encountered at school or collegeThe entropy is decreasing because four total reactant molecules are forming two total product molecules. All are gases.