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The Chemical Context of life Flashcards

(58 cards)

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1
Q

Organisms are composed of what?

A

Matter

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2
Q

What’s an element?

A

A substance that cannot be broken down to other substances by chemical reactions

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3
Q

What’s a compound?

A

A substance consisting of two or more different elements combined in a fixed ratio

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4
Q

How many elements are essentials?

A

20-25%

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5
Q

What are the 4 elements that make up 96% of living matter

A

Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen

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6
Q

What are trace elements?

A

Elements required by organisms in minute amounts

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7
Q

An element’s properties depend on what?

A

The structure of its atoms

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8
Q

What’s an atom

A

The smallest unit of matter

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9
Q

What are subatomic particles?

A

Protons (positively charged), electrons (negatively charged) and neutrons (no charge)

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10
Q

What subatomic particles are inside the nucleus?

A

Protons and Neutrons (electrons form a cloud around the nucleus

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11
Q

All atoms of an element have the same amount of what in their nucleus?

A

Protons

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12
Q

What’s the atomic number?

A

The number of protons and elections in a neutral atom

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13
Q

What’s the mass number?

A

The total number of protons and neutrons in an atom

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14
Q

What’s an isotope?

A

When an element has more neutrons than protons making the mass of the element greater?

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15
Q

What’s the difference between a stable and unstable isotope?

A

Stable isotopes mean their nuclei don’t have the tendency to lose subatomic particles like unstable or radioactive isotopes do

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16
Q

Are only electrons directly in the chemical reactions btwn atoms?

A

Yes

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17
Q

What natural tendency does matter/electrons have when it comes to potential energy?

A

To stay at the lowest state of energy

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18
Q

Is it true the further away an electron is from the nucleus, the greater the potential energy is has?

A

Yes

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19
Q

How many electrons can the first shell hold?

A

2 electrons

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20
Q

How many electrons can the second shell hold?

A

8 electrons

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21
Q

What are the outermost shells called?

A

Valence shells

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22
Q

What are atoms with complete valence shell?

A

Unreactive

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23
Q

What is a covalent bond?

A

The sharing of a pair of valence electrons by two atoms

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24
Q

What’s a single bond?

Study These Flashcards
A

The sharing of one pair of electrons

25
What's a double bond?
The sharing of two pairs of electrons
26
What's a valence?
An atom's bonding capacity is depended on how many elements is required to full a valence shell. (H-1, O-2, N-3, C-4)
27
What's electronegativity?
Attraction to a particular atom for the electrons of a covalent bond
28
What's a non polar covalent bond?
Bonds with the same elements the electrons are equally shared b/c the electronegativity is the same
29
What's a polar covalent bond?
When an atom is bonded to a more electronegative atom, the electrons are not shared equally
30
What's polarity?
The electronegativity of two shared atoms
31
What are ionic bonds?
Two attracted oppositely charged ions
32
What are ions?
Positive charged ions are called cations and negative charged ions are called anions
33
What are the compounds formed by ionic bonds?
Salts
34
Are ionic bonds themselves molecules?
No
35
What are special about hydrogen?
When covalently bonded to a electronegative atom, the hydrogen atom is partially positive charged and is allowed to be attracted to a different electronegative atom nearby
36
What's a hydrogen bond?
A noncovalent attraction btwn a hydrogen and an electronegative atom (usually oxygen and nitrogen)
37
What is a Van der Waals interaction?
Electrons that move around to different regions, resulting in ever-changing regions of positive and negative charge that enables all atoms and molecules to stick to one another; non polar covalent; are individually weak and occur when atoms/molecules are very close together
38
Why are molecular shape important to biology?
They determine how biological molecules interact to one another with specificity; weak bonds
39
What are chemical reactions?
The making and breaking of chemical bonds leading to changes in the composition of matter
40
What are reactants?
The starting materials of a reactions
41
What are products?
The resulting materials of a reactions
42
What's a chemical equilibrium?
Reactions are still going on but with no net affects/the same rate on the concentrations of reactions and products
43
Are reactions reversible?
Yes
44
Water is what type of molecule?
Polar
45
What's cohesion?
Hydrogen bonds that hold the substance together; contributes to the transport of water and dissolved nutrients against gravity in plants
46
What's adhesion?
The clinging of one substance to another; the water to the cell walls by hydrogen bonds helps counter the downward pull of gravity
47
What's surface tension?
A measure of how difficult it is to stretch or break the surface of a liquid
48
How does water moderate air temp.?
Absorbing heat from air that is warmer and releasing that stored to air that is cooler
49
Kinetic energy associated with the random movement of atoms or molecules is called what?
Thermal energy; the faster they move the more kinetic energy they have
50
What's the difference between thermal energy and temp.?
Thermal energy is the total amount of KE of a molecule, depends on the matter's volume, while temp. is the average amount of KE in a molecule/ volume doesn't matter
51
What's heat?
Thermal energy in transfer from one body to another
52
What does water having a high specific heat mean?
It takes longer for the temp. to change; serves to moderate air temps. in coastal areas and stabilizes ocean temps.
53
What's vaporization/evaporation?
When molecules move fast enough that it departs the liquid state and turns into gas
54
What's evaporative cooling?
As liquid evaporates, the surface of the liquid that remains behind cools down
55
What happens to water when it freezes?
It gets less dense as a solid than a liquid b/c it expands and it floats on water
56
What's an aqueous solution?
When the solute is dissolved in water, water is the solvent
57
What's a solvent?
The dissolving agent in the solution
58
What's a solute?
The one doing the dissolving in the solution

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