BIOL 11000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Electromagnetic Spectrum, Isolated System, Exergonic Process

• School: Purdue University
• Department: Biological Sciences
• Course: BIOL 11000
• Professor: Athena Anderson

Document Summary

Energy: capacity to cause change; rearrange a collection of matter. Study of energy transformation in a collection of matter. System: matter under study: isolated system: unable to exchange energy or matter with surroundings (ex: liquid in a thermos, open system: energy & matter can be transferred b/w system & surroundings (ex: all organisms) Organisms absorb energy (light, organic molecules) and release energy (heat, waste products) 1st law (principle of conservation of energy): energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only transferred or transformed; energy of universe is constant. 2nd law: energy transfer and transformation increase disorder/ randomness (entropy) of universe. Organisms decrease entropy of universe on local scale: ex: evolution of complex from simple, ex: building macromolecules from monomers. Organisms increase entropy of universe overall: ex: releasing heat & waste. Spontaneous processes increase entropy of universe & don"t require energy to proceed: (not necessarily a fast process, for a process to occur spontaneously, it must increase entropy of universe.