Chemical Reactions and Energy
In the Matter, Energy, and Change Unit of this course, you learned that energy is the capacity to do work. We can also say that energy is the capacity to produce heat. Energy is involved in all chemical reactions. You will now learn about the basic concepts of energy transfers (namely heat transfers) that accompany chemical reactions.
One of the most important concepts of energy is that is it is conserved. The law of conservation of energy states:
Energy can be converted from one form to another
but that it can be neither created nor destroyed.
This law tells us that the total amount of energy in the universe is constant, though it does change forms. The law also tells us that in a chemical reaction, all energy gains and losses must be accounted for.
