Biology Essay Questions
1. The paper doesn’t spontaneously burst into flame because of the energy of activation, which is an amount of energy that acts as an energy barrier for reactions so that reaction won’t spontaneously react. The match provides enough energy for the activation energy to be reach, which then starts the reaction.
2. Because the stomach would be filled with a hypertonic fluid the cells surrounding the stomach would lose water through osmosis, because water moves from hypotonic to hypertonic solutions. The person would become dehydrated.
3. Both the laws of thermodynamics. A person can’t win because to live they need energy, but energy conversions aren’t 100% efficient and so even with a good source of energy the conversion is flawed. Another reason is entropy. Each reaction lessons the supply of good sources of energy requiring humans to work harder to get the same thing. The cycle never ends of gains and losses so no matter what the person must continue to play the games and so cannot win or even break even.
4. The substrate fits into the enzyme with an induced fit. When the insecticide was introduced, as a competitive inhibitor, it competed with the substrate for use of the active site of the enzyme. Because of this competition the reaction was slowed lower than the rate needed for the person to survive and therefore he died.
5. The polar heads of lecithin (light purple) are hydrophilic and attract water. The non-polar tails (teal) attract the fat molecule. This arrangement allows the water to surround the fat molecule.
Source: http://www.bio.miami.edu/~cmallery/255/255chem/gk2x20.gif
For questions from Biology: Concepts and Connections Volume 5 Chapter 7 handout