T - Thermodynamics Module Overview

Thermodynamics Module Overview

Introduction

Each and every day, millions of cars, buses, and trucks are used to transport people and goods from one place to another. At the heart of these machines is an internal combustion engine which relies on gasoline for its source of power. While there is a chemical reaction going on inside this engine that converts gasoline and oxygen into carbon dioxide and water, the point of burning the fuel is not to harness the chemical products that are produced. Rather, it is the energy that is produced by these chemical changes that is of primary benefit. Therefore, energy seems to be a fundamental interest, and this module will seek to understand how energy is transferred through both chemical and physical processes.  

In addition, this unit also explores how energy is obtained from chemical reactions as well as investigates why chemical reactions occur at all. Why is it that some reactions proceed in one direction completely, whereas other reactions will not occur at all? Kinetics aside, the idea of chemical spontaneity will be investigated which describes why reactions proceed in the direction that is observed.

Module Lessons Preview

In this module, we will study the following topics:

Energy Transfer

Enthalpy and Heats of Reaction

Calorimetry

Hess's Law

Entropy

Gibb's Free Energy

Gibb's Free Energy and Equilibrium

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