What is the change in enthalpy for an exothermic reaction?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What is the change in enthalpy for an exothermic reaction?
Positive
Negative
Zero
Undefined
In an exothermic reaction, heat is released, resulting in a negative change in enthalpy.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: What is the change in enthalpy for an exothermic reaction?
Solution: In an exothermic reaction, heat is released, resulting in a negative change in enthalpy.
Steps: 6
Step 1: Understand what an exothermic reaction is. It is a type of chemical reaction that releases heat to the surroundings.
Step 2: Know that 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 3: In an exothermic reaction, because heat is released, the energy of the products is lower than the energy of the reactants.
Step 4: The change in enthalpy (ΔH) is calculated as the energy of the products minus the energy of the reactants.
Step 5: Since the products have less energy than the reactants, the change in enthalpy (ΔH) is negative.
Step 6: Therefore, for an exothermic reaction, the change in enthalpy is negative.
