Wednesday, September 19, 2018

physical chemistry - Is not possible to find absolute value of internal energy?


Today in thermodynamics lecture my teacher told that it is not possible to find absolute value of internal energy so we have to calculate change in internal energy.


So my question is why is it not possible to find absolute value of internal energy? Is it really true?



Answer




In order to answer this question, one needs to define what the absolute energy of a system is. Energy can be trapped in a system in ways not yet discovered or fully understood. Think of the energy associated with mass ($E=mc^2$), which is a result that was not known to the early founders of thermodynamics.


We need to define reference points, which we can use to compare our products with. Usually this "zero" point is defined as the energy of the individual atoms in their most energetically favorable state (phosphorus is an exception, since red phosphorus is much more available), such as $\ce{H2}$ and $\ce{He}$.


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