After this lesson, you should be able to...
Now that we know the basics, let's go a little deeper. We're starting on a quest to find exactly where those electrons are within an atom. Sure, they are in the electron cloud, but where ? Electrons are responsible for all of the chemistry of the elements. After all, electrons can be easily gained or lost (relative to the proton and neutron) and are involved in forming chemical bonds!
Before we get too far in our journey, we need to understand energy. In this lesson, we will look at energy in the form of heat and work and how energy is transferred between a system and surroundings.
Energy can be transferred between different objects and in different forms. Below is shown the chemical reaction of combining molecular hydrogen and molecular oxygen to create water.
2 H2 + O2 -> 2 H2 O
Energy is given off when the two molecules react. Linked below are two videos demonstrating different ways in which energy can be exchanged.
In the first video , we see that heat and sound are given off when they combine. In the second video , we see that the energy of the chemical reaction is harnessed to do work (make the blades of a fan spin).