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Biology > The Chemical Context of life > Flashcards

The Chemical Context of life Flashcards

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AP® Biology flashcards Biology 101 flashcards
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?

A

The sharing of one pair of electrons

25
Q

What’s a double bond?

A

The sharing of two pairs of electrons

26
Q

What’s a valence?

A

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
Q

What’s electronegativity?

A

Attraction to a particular atom for the electrons of a covalent bond

28
Q

What’s a non polar covalent bond?

A

Bonds with the same elements the electrons are equally shared b/c the electronegativity is the same

29
Q

What’s a polar covalent bond?

A

When an atom is bonded to a more electronegative atom, the electrons are not shared equally

30
Q

What’s polarity?

A

The electronegativity of two shared atoms

31
Q

What are ionic bonds?

A

Two attracted oppositely charged ions

32
Q

What are ions?

A

Positive charged ions are called cations and negative charged ions are called anions

33
Q

What are the compounds formed by ionic bonds?

A

Salts

34
Q

Are ionic bonds themselves molecules?

A

No

35
Q

What are special about hydrogen?

A

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
Q

What’s a hydrogen bond?

A

A noncovalent attraction btwn a hydrogen and an electronegative atom (usually oxygen and nitrogen)

37
Q

What is a Van der Waals interaction?

A

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
Q

Why are molecular shape important to biology?

A

They determine how biological molecules interact to one another with specificity; weak bonds

39
Q

What are chemical reactions?

A

The making and breaking of chemical bonds leading to changes in the composition of matter

40
Q

What are reactants?

A

The starting materials of a reactions

41
Q

What are products?

A

The resulting materials of a reactions

42
Q

What’s a chemical equilibrium?

A

Reactions are still going on but with no net affects/the same rate on the concentrations of reactions and products

43
Q

Are reactions reversible?

A

Yes

44
Q

Water is what type of molecule?

A

Polar

45
Q

What’s cohesion?

A

Hydrogen bonds that hold the substance together; contributes to the transport of water and dissolved nutrients against gravity in plants

46
Q

What’s adhesion?

A

The clinging of one substance to another; the water to the cell walls by hydrogen bonds helps counter the downward pull of gravity

47
Q

What’s surface tension?

A

A measure of how difficult it is to stretch or break the surface of a liquid

48
Q

How does water moderate air temp.?

A

Absorbing heat from air that is warmer and releasing that stored to air that is cooler

49
Q

Kinetic energy associated with the random movement of atoms or molecules is called what?

A

Thermal energy; the faster they move the more kinetic energy they have

50
Q

What’s the difference between thermal energy and temp.?

A

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
Q

What’s heat?

A

Thermal energy in transfer from one body to another

52
Q

What does water having a high specific heat mean?

A

It takes longer for the temp. to change; serves to moderate air temps. in coastal areas and stabilizes ocean temps.

53
Q

What’s vaporization/evaporation?

A

When molecules move fast enough that it departs the liquid state and turns into gas

54
Q

What’s evaporative cooling?

A

As liquid evaporates, the surface of the liquid that remains behind cools down

55
Q

What happens to water when it freezes?

A

It gets less dense as a solid than a liquid b/c it expands and it floats on water

56
Q

What’s an aqueous solution?

A

When the solute is dissolved in water, water is the solvent

57
Q

What’s a solvent?

A

The dissolving agent in the solution

58
Q

What’s a solute?

A

The one doing the dissolving in the solution

Biology (4 decks)

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