BIOL 204 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Chemical Energy, Kinetic Energy, Electromagnetic Radiation
Document Summary
Life requires catalysts called enzymes to speed up rate of reaction without the need to increase temperature. Life is an energy-driven process only detected through its ability to do work. Energy defined as the capacity to do work. Energy exists in many forms: heat, chemical, electrical, mechanical, electromagnetic radiation (visible, infrared, uv light) Thermodynamics is the study of energy and its transformations: system is the object being studied, surroundings is everything outside the system, universe is the total of system and surroundings. 3 types of systems: 1) isolated does not exchange matter/energy with surroundings, 2) open both energy/matter can are exchanged with surroundings, 3) closed exchanges energy but not matter with surroundings. Niagara falls high potential energy at the top, as it falls it turns into from one place to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed. This law is also called the principle of the conservation of energy.