Thermodynamic free energy

High school (ages 12+)
Science & Technology

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/thermodynamic-free-energy

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. Who discovered Thermodynamic free energy?Formulated by Josiah Willard Gibbs (1873) and Hermann von Helmholtz (circa 1882)
2. What is free energy?Free energy is a special kind of energy that tells us if a process can happen on its own. It shows how much useful work a system can do when the temperature and pressure stay the same.
3. Why does a negative ΔG mean a reaction will happen?When ΔG is negative, the system moves to a lower energy state, so the reaction can happen by itself. It’s like a ball rolling downhill—once it starts, it keeps going.

Spontaneity: The inherent tendency of a process to occur without external energy input.
Enthalpy: The total heat content of a system, including internal energy and pressure-volume work.
Entropy: A measure of the disorder or randomness within a system, related to the number of possible microstates.
Equilibrium: A state where a system's macroscopic properties do not change over time; forward and reverse processes occur at equal rates.