Question

1. How does biochemistry differ from organic chemistry? (consider solvents, concentrations, reaction temperatures, rates, yields, side reactions)

2. What thermodynamic quantity determines whether a reaction is spontaneous or not?

3. For the following physical processes, determine the sign of delta G, delta H and delta S.

a) Water freezing on a cold day

b) Water evaporating from a lake on a hot summer day

4. Determine whether the entropy increases (+delta S) or decreases (- delta S) for the following processes:

            a) A drop of food coloring placed in a glass of water spreads out and uniformly colors all of the water

            b) Single-stranded DNA finds its complement in an aqueous solution and forms a double helix

Answer 1

1.

The name itself tells the difference. Biochemistry= bio+ chemistry , that is the study of chemistry of biological processes or its the study of chemical processes in biological systems.

whereas organic chemistry is the study of compounds containing carbon-carbon or carbon-hydrogen compounds.

2.

The thermodynamic quantity that decide whether the reaction will be spontaneous or not is the Gibbs free energy change. If the free energy change is negative then the reaction is spontaneous otherwise non-spontaneous.​

3.

a)

delta G= negative

delta S= negative

delta H= negative

b)

delta G= negative

delta S= positive

delta H= positive

4.

a) disorder increases. So delta S is positive.

b) disorder decreases. So delta S is negative