How does increasing temperature generally affect the enthalpy of a system?
Practice Questions
Q1
How does increasing temperature generally affect the enthalpy of a system?
It decreases the enthalpy
It has no effect on enthalpy
It increases the enthalpy
It depends on the type of reaction
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
How does increasing temperature generally affect the enthalpy of a system?
Step 1: Understand what enthalpy is. Enthalpy is a measure of the total energy of a system, including internal energy and the energy required to make room for it by displacing its environment.
Step 2: Recognize that temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the molecules in a system.
Step 3: Realize that when the temperature of a system increases, the kinetic energy of the molecules also increases.
Step 4: Understand that as the kinetic energy of the molecules increases, they move faster and collide more often and with greater energy.
Step 5: Conclude that this increase in molecular motion and energy leads to an increase in the overall energy of the system, which means the enthalpy of the system increases.
Enthalpy and Temperature Relationship – Increasing temperature generally leads to an increase in the enthalpy of a system because it raises the kinetic energy of the molecules, resulting in greater internal energy.