CHEMISTRY FOR ENGINEERS

MODULE 1

ENERGY

WHAT IS ENERGY?

Energy does things for us. It moves cars along the road and boats on the water. It bakes cake in the
oven and keeps ice frozen in the freezer. It plays our favorite songs and lights our homes at night. Energy helps
our bodies grow, and our minds think. Energy is a changing, moving, doing, working thing.

Energy is defined as the ability to produce change or do work, and that work can be divided into several
main tasks we easily recognize:

• Energy produces light.

• Energy produces heat.
• Energy produces motion.
• Energy produces sound.
• Energy produces growth.
• Energy powers technology.

FORMS OF ENERGY

There are many forms of energy, but they fall into two categories:

1. POTENTIAL ENERGY – is stored energy and the energy of position, or gravitational energy. There are several
forms of potential energy which includes:

• Chemical Energy – energy stored in the bonds of atoms and molecules. It is the energy that holds these
particles together.
• Nuclear Energy – is the energy stored in the nucleus of an atom or the energy that holds the nucleus
together.
• Gravitational Energy – is the energy of position or place. A rock resting at the top of the hill contains
gravitational potential energy. Hydropower, such as water in a reservoir behind a dam, is an example of
gravitational potential energy.

𝑃𝐸 = 𝑚𝑔ℎ
𝑚
𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒: 𝑚 − 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 (𝑘𝑔) ; 𝑔 − 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑑𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 (9.8 ) 𝑎𝑛𝑑; ℎ − ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 (𝑚)
𝑠2

2. KINETIC ENERGY – is motion – motion of waves, electrons, atoms molecules, substances, and objects.

• Electrical Energy – is the movement of electrons. Everything is made of tiny particles called atoms. Atoms
are made of even smaller particles called electrons, protons and neutrons. Applying a force can cause
some of the electrons to move. Electron moving through a wire is called electricity.
• Radiant Energy – is electromagnetic energy that travels in transverse waves. Radiant energy includes
visible light, x-rays, gamma rays, and radio waves. Light and solar energy are types of radiant energy.

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• Thermal Energy or Heat – is the internal energy of a substance – the vibration and movement of atoms
and molecules within a substance. The faster molecules and atoms vibrate and move within a substance,
the more energy they possess and the hotter they become. Geothermal energy is an example of heat
energy.
• Motion Energy – is the movement of objects and substances from one place to another. According to
Newton’s Law of Motion, objects and substances move when a force is applied. Wind is an example of
motion energy.
• Sound Energy – is the movement of energy through substances in longitudinal (compression) waves.
Sound is produces when a force causes an object or substance to vibrate. The energy is transferred
through the substance in a wave.

1
𝐾𝐸 = 𝑚𝑣 2
2
𝑚
𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒: 𝑚 − 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 (𝑘𝑔) 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑣 − 𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 ( )
𝑠

ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION ON ENERGY:

Watch this video from Khan Academy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzvatDIDXwo

SOURCES OF ENERGY

People have always used energy to do work for them. Thousands of years ago, early humans burned
wood to provide light, heat their living spaces, and cook their food. Later, people used the wind to move their
boats from place to place. A hundred years ago, people began using falling water to make electricity.

Today, people use more energy than ever from a variety of sources for a multitude of tasks and our lives
are undoubtedly better for it. Our homes are comfortable and full of useful and entertaining electrical devices.
We communicate instantaneously in many ways. We live longer, healthier lives. We travel the world, or at least
see it on television and the internet. The major energy sources we use today are classified into two broad
groups—non-renewable and renewable.

1. NON-RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES – include coal, petroleum, natural gas, propane, and uranium. They are
used to generate electricity, to heat our homes, to move our cars, and to manufacture products from candy bars
to cell phones.

These energy sources are called non-renewable because they cannot be replenished in a short period of
time. Petroleum, for example, was formed millions of years ago from the remains of ancient sea life, so we can’t
make more quickly. We could run out of economically recoverable non-renewable resources someday.

2. RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES – include biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, and wind. They are called
renewable energy sources because their supplies are replenished in a short time. Day after day, the sun shines,
the wind blows, and the rivers flow. We use renewable energy sources mainly to make electricity.

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ENERGY UNITS

Energy is measured in terms of its ability to perform work or transfer heat. Mechanical work is done
when a force f displaces an object by a distance d:

𝑊=𝑓𝑥𝑑

The basic unit of energy is Joule (J). One Joule is the amount of work done when a force of 1 Newton acts over
a distance of 1 meter; thus 1 J = 1 N.m. The Newton is the amount of force required to accelerate a 1 kg mass
by 1 m/s2, so the basic dimension of the joule are kg.m2/s2. The other two units in wide use are the calorie (cal)
and British Thermal Unit (Btu) which are defined in terms of the heating effect in water. There are large number
of units in which energy can be expressed and a few are summarized below:

TABLE 1.1: Some energy units and its corresponding definition.

ENERGY UNIT DEFINITION

1 calorie will raise the temperature of water by 1℃. The “dietary”

1 cal = 4.184 J
calorie is actually 1kcal.

1 Btu = 1055 J 1 Btu will raise the temperature of 1 lb of water by 1℉.

1 J = 107 ergs 1 erg is the c.g.s. unit of energy and a very small one; the work done
1 erg = 1 g.cm2/s2 = 1 d-cm when a 1-dyne force acts over a distance of 1 cm.

The electron-volt is even tinier: 1 eV is the work required to move a

1 J = 6.24 x 1018 eV
unit electic charge (1 C) through a potential difference of 1 volt.

1 J = 2.78 x 10-4 watt-hr The watt is a unit of power, which measures the rate of energy flow in
1 watt-hr = 3.6 kJ J/s. Thus the watt-hr is a unit of energy.

The liter-atmosphere is a variant of force-displacement work

1 L-atm = 101.235 J
associated with volume changes in gases.

WORK

It was already defined earlier that work is force acting through a distance. But as it turns out, there are
other definitions of work that is equally important to chemistry.

When a certain volume of a gas expands, it works against an external pressure to expand. That is, the
gas must perform work.

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Assuming that the pressure Pext is constant, the

amount of work done by the gas is given by the
equation:

𝑊 = −𝑃𝑒𝑥𝑡 𝑥 ∆𝑉

where ∆V is the change in volume of the gas and

is calculated by:

∆𝑉 = 𝑉𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 − 𝑉𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙

The ∆V can be positive or negative,

depending on whether Vfinal is larger (expansion)
or smaller (contraction) than Vinitial.
Fig. 1.1 Volume vs Pressure

HEAT

Heat is another aspect of energy. It is the transfer from one body to another due to a difference in
temperature. If two bodies at different temperatures are brought together, energy is transferred – i.e. heat flows
– from the hotter body to the colder one.

The measurement of heat is given by the equation:

𝑞 = 𝑚𝑐∆𝑇

𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒: 𝑚 − 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 (𝑘𝑔); 𝑐 − 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ∆𝑇 − 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒

The specific heat capacity, also called specific heat or heat capacity, is a measure of how much energy is needed
to change the temperature of a substance.

EXERCISES:

1. A rifle shoots a 4.25 g bullet at a velocity of 965 m/s. What is its kinetic energy?
2. Find the change in potential energy of a 2.6 kg textbook that falls from the 66-cm height of a table top
onto the floor.
3. A bicycle has a kinetic energy of 124 J. What kinetic energy would the bicycle have if it had…
a. … twice the mass and was moving at the same speed?
b. … the same mass and moving with twice the speed?
c. … one-half the mass and was moving twice the speed?
d. … the same mass and moving one-half the speed?
e. …thrice the mass and moving one-half the speed?

4. A glass of milk typically contains about 253 kcal of energy. Convert this amount of energy in J and Btu.

5. Rennata is out with her friends. Misfortune occurs and they found themselves out of gas. They
accumulatively applied a force of 1080 N to push the car 218 m to the nearest fuel station. Determine
the work done on the car.

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6. Lamar Gant, U.S. powerlifting star, became the first man to deadlift five times its own body weight in
1985. Deadlifting involves raising a loaded barbell from the floor to a position above the head with
outstretched arms. Determine the work done by Lamar in deadlifting 300 kg to a height of 0.90 m above
the ground.

7. What is the sign of work when a sample of a gas increases its volume? Explain why work has that sign.

8. What is the work when a gas expands from 3 L to 12.6 L against an external pressure of 0.888 atm?

9. Calculate the heat involved when 76.5 g of Ag increase the temperature from 17.8℃ to 144.5℃. The
specific heat of Ag is 0.233 J/g℃

10. Gold has a specific heat of 0.129 J/g.℃. If 1377 J is needed to increase the temperature of a sample of
gold by 99.9℃, what is the mass of gold?

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REFERENCES:

http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/energy/Resources/Intro%20to%20Energy%20Reading.pdf

https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry_Textbook_Maps/Supplemental_
Modules_(Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry)/Thermodynamics/Chemical_Energetics/Energy%2C_Heat%2C
_and_Work

https://www.physicsclassroom.com/calcpad/energy/problems

https://chem.libretexts.org/Courses/Los_Angeles_Trade_Technical_College/DMA_Chem_51_Su_19/2%3A_Begi
nning_Chemistry_(Ball)/07%3A_Energy_and_Chemistry/7.3%3A_Work_and_Heat

https://www.britannica.com/science/heat

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/inteng.html

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