| A | B |
|---|
| Energy | the ability to cause matter to move or change |
| Kinetic Energy | the energy an object has because of its motion |
| Potential Energy | the energy an object has because of its position |
| thermodynamics | the study of energy transformations |
| The First Law of Thermodynamics | energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be converted from one form to another |
| entropy | the amount of disorder in a system |
| the Second Law of Thermodynamics | Disorder in the universe constantly increases; in a closed system, energy tends to be converted to less organized forms |
| Photosynthesis | the process that converts light energy to chemical energy |
| chemiosynthesis | the process that converts inorganic chemical energy to organic energy |
| autotrophs | Organisms that harvest energy from either sunlight or chemicals |
| heterotrophs | organisms that cannot harvest energy directly from sunlight or inorganic molecules, but instead consume food |
| cellular respiration | a series of chemical reactions that converts energy stored in food to a more useful form |
| oxidation | the loss of an electron |
| reduction | the gain of an electron |
| oxidation-reduction reaction | chemical reactions that pass electrons frome one atom or molecule to another |
