Energy as Money, Chemical Bonding as Business, and Negative ΔH and ΔG as Investment

Evguenii I. Kozliak
Department of Chemistry, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202-9024
J. Chem. Educ., 2002, 79 (12), p 1435
DOI: 10.1021/ed079p1435
Publication Date (Web): December 1, 2002
History, Education, and Documentation

Abstract

A simple analogy is suggested illustrating the thermodynamic sign convention and the significance of the negative sign of ΔH and ΔG on spontaneity for general or introductory chemistry students. Enthalpy or energy is associated with money, and atoms or molecules are referred to as people. The suggested metaphor for ΔH is net profit or investment into the surroundings; positive ΔS is viewed as internal investment into the system. Hence, ΔG is similar to gross profit in business; its dependence on temperature is illustrated by the reversal of the market trends for high-tech companies in 2000. The analogy is further expanded to illustrate the significance of ionic lattice enthalpy, the positive sign of atomic ionization energies, and chemical bond enthalpies.

Keywords (Audience):

High School / Introductory Chemistry

Keywords (Feature):

Applications and Analogies

Keywords (Pedagogy):

Analogies / Transfer

Keywords (Subject):

Nonmajor Courses
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History

  • Received: August 03, 2009

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