Thermodynamics and Thermochemistry   Carl W. Vermeulen, PhD Science-Projects.Com Williamsburg, Virginia science_projects@yahoo.com

 

   The goal of this workshop shows teachers how easy it is for adults to understand what children readily do about the "hard" thermodynamic laws of physics that are fundamental to chemistry. So let's understand thermodynamics in mere minutes!

1. Thermodynamics for Preschoolers, roller coasters and syphons. What do these have to do with all those big words - Gibb's free energy, activation energy, and other FUNdamentals?
    

2. Thermodynamics from the Reaction Machine moves us onwards to chemistry reviewing us in the concepts of free energy, and activation energy, before thrusting us into how those affect the new concepts called the equilibrium constant and dynamic equilibrium (or as some physicists like to say "dynamic steady state").
    

3. Einstein's favorite equation, and heat capacity
    
   
     From this daunting equation we discover things simple and profound - the very basics of chemistry - and of relativity, if you want to go that far! Hopefully, you will keep yourself relatively dry while using equipment such as shown to the left of the title, above, to measuring the heat capacities of various substances - AND - then to make a startling extrapolation to see what Einstein was talking about!
    

4. How macromolecules act in reactions is obviously basic to polymer chemistry - including much of biochemistry as well as those interested in synthetic textiles. Shudder! This is a test to see if adults can understand what is fundamentally important for snakey molecules to be reactants.
    

5. What's behind heats of solution will open a door to an aspect of thermodynamics that is usually only fleetingly mentioned in the lab but is all important in the universe - entropy!