Q: According to the first law of thermodynamics energy is neither created nor destroyed. If this is so, why can't we just re-use and recycle energy?
Potential exam question #1:
Explain why global vegetarianism would lead to more efficient land-use, using the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
Potential exam question #2:
A. Explain the phrase: "The chemicals of life are reduced".
B. We think that early Earth had a reducing environment, in contrast to the oxidizing environment that we have now. How could this have affected the ways in which living organisms stored their chemical energy?
Potential exam question #3:
One of your classmates has another of her newest and greatest ideas. She tells you, "I've got a solution for renewable power generation from the ocean." She hands you a sheet of paper with a schematic on it. Her idea involves a very tall apparatus that will sit inside the ocean astride layers of water at different temperatures. "That's ridiculous," a friend of hers comments. "The 2nd law of thermodynamics says you can't run a boat off of the heat in the ocean, so you wouldn't be able to generate power either." Is this idea unworkable on those grounds or not? Why?
Potential exam question #4:
Describe the relationship between light intensity and primary production.
Potential exam question #5:
Why do living things require a continuous flow of energy? Touch on the concepts of the 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics and entropy in your response.
Potential Exam question #6
Explain the processes that heat the atmosphere.