Thermodynamics

MCAT Basics (from MedSchoolCoach)

MedSchoolCoach

Science

4.6 • 612 Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Thermodynamics is fundamental to mastering chemistry concepts and understanding the energy dynamics within biological systems crucial for the MCAT.

In this episode, host Sam Smith dives into the laws of thermodynamics, covering everything from the zeroth law to the third. You'll explore key concepts like enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs Free Energy and learn how they apply to reaction spontaneity and equilibrium. Sam also gives practical examples, including how the equilibrium constant and reaction quotient (Q vs. K) affect reactions, and covers types of heat transfer—conduction, convection, and radiation—essential for the Chem/Phys section.

Visit MedSchoolCoach.com for more help with the MCAT and use promo code PODCAST to receive a five percent discount on your first session.

Jump into the conversation:

(00:00) Intro

(01:03) Introduction to thermodynamics

(03:58) The four laws of thermodynamics

(12:46) Thermodynamic variables: entropy, enthalpy, and Gibbs Free Energy

(24:11) Phase changes in thermodynamics

(25:30) Gibbs Free Energy and spontaneity of reactions

(38:01) The three types of heat transfer: conduction, convection, and radiation

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to MCAT Basics, your ultimate guide to the essential topics you need to master for the MCAT,
0:07.0	brought to you by the physicians at Med School Coach.
0:10.0	Every week, Sam Smith breaks down high-yield MCAT topics, ensuring you're primed for success on test day.
0:17.0	Join Sam as we explore the most crucial subjects outlined by the AAMC, pulled from official practice materials and third-party resources.
0:24.8	Get ready to elevate your MCAT game with topics tailored to maximize your score potential.
0:30.0	Hello, I'm Sam Smith.
0:32.3	This podcast covers thermodynamics.
0:34.9	The first thing I'm going to talk about are the four laws of thermodynamics.
0:38.2	Then I'm going to get into enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs-free energy. And I'll talk a little bit about
0:43.7	what you need to know on the MCAT in terms of those and what types of questions you're going to
0:47.8	see. And then lastly, I'll talk about the three different types of heat transfer that is
0:52.7	conduction, convection, and radiation. And this material will show up on one out of the four sections, which is the chem-fiz section of the MCAT. I hope this podcast gives you a little bit better of an understanding of thermodynamics, which is going to be on the MCAT, a little bit of a harder topic, I would say, in terms of chemistry. It's not always straightforward, a little bit non-intuitive.
1:13.6	I hope this podcast helps.
1:20.0	All right, so the first thing I want to talk about here is the difference between kinetics and thermodynamics,
1:25.8	because they're two opposing forces.
1:30.3	So kinetics is essentially the speed of the reaction, whereas thermodynamics is more related to equilibrium of the reaction.
1:35.3	So to kind of illustrate this, I want to talk about the reaction
1:38.3	in which diamond is converted to graphite.
1:41.3	So someone out there probably, hopefully that's listening to this, is
1:45.0	engaged. I want you to look down at your engagement ring and it looks like diamond, right? Well,
1:49.9	hopefully it looks like diamond. It doesn't look like graphite or it doesn't look like carbon.
1:54.0	So this reaction is a spontaneous reaction. In other words, diamond spontaneously converts to
	...

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