Final Exam Notes Flashcards
Physiology
the study of how organisms work (form and function)
Design rules for plans and animals
they must obey physical and chemical laws including scaling and they are constrained by evolutionary history, wha can it do with what it already has
Scaling
how do things change when things change in size, as a physiological characteristic
Safety factor
we have two lungs when we really only need the one, and the pancreas is 80% larger than we need it to be function properly … bridges are stronger than they need to be as well
First law of thermodynamics
energy cannot be created nor destroyed
Second law of thermodynamics
entropy (disorder) always increases, it takes energy to remain organized (alive), plants must capture solar energy and animals must eat
Input / Output Budget
plants and animals require to take in the nutrients and energy in order to function - used for maintenance, generating of external work, reproductive fitness and biosynthesis, using energy as efficiently as it can in order to maximize the output (animals are very inefficient, plants are very efficient biomechanical maniacs, but they do perform the same similar things)
Temperature
a measure of the speed or intensity of random motion, animals must adapt to their environment and the temperature in which they live, temperature is the motion by the atoms in the object
Temperature of a substance is proportional to …
the product of the mean square speed of the random molecular motions and the molecular mass
Temperature vs. Heat
temperature is not heat, heat is energy, heat and temperature are related in that energy will influence movements of molecules
Heat
amount of energy in the object
Temperature determines …
the direction of heat transfer - warm to cold
Animals and their environment temperature …
despite the type of animal, there is a constant relationship between the organism and its environment in regards to heat transfers - using convection, evaporation, conduction, radiation, etc … to change the animals temperature, uses its environment
Plants and animals and their environment temperature …
receives radiation heat from the sun either direct or reflected through the clouds, radiation from plants and the sky, this enters the animal, and the animal itself produces heat of its environment
Absolute Zero
when molecules stop moving - there is no energy
15 degrees celcius
where development and growth can occur for many insects and plants
50 to 70 degrees celcius
the machines that carry out metabolism often have denaturing of their proteins near 50 to 70 degrees
37 degrees celcius
body temperature of most mammals
endotherms
generate internal heat
ectotherms
rely on external temperature to determine body temperature
homeotherm
defend a constant body temperature
poikilotherms
allow body temperature to vary
heterotherms
have more than one temperature set point, or switch between homeothermy and poikilothermy
regional endothermy / heterothermy
different body temperatures in different parts of the body