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Energy Changes

  • 4 subtopics
  • 12 things to know
  • Chemistry Paper 1

What Energy Changes covers

Energy Changes is examined in Chemistry Paper 1. It covers exothermic and endothermic reactions, everyday uses, and investigating temperature change, reaction profiles and the energy change of reactions.

Where it is assessed

Chemistry Paper 1

Combined Science: Trilogy, Chemistry Paper 1: 1 hour 15 minutes, 70 marks, 16.7% of the qualification.

Check the AQA specification ↗

The 4 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Describe the energy changes involved in breaking the bonds in the reactants and making the new bonds in the products.

Key term

Explain what a high activation energy means for a reaction's rate, what particles must have to react, and what a reaction profile shows.

Key term

Explain why a reaction can be exothermic overall even though energy has to be supplied to start it.

Key term

If a reaction transfers energy to its surroundings, how does the energy stored in the products compare with the energy stored in the reactants?

Key term

Which two substances are mixed in a well known endothermic reaction that makes the temperature of the mixture fall?

Key term

A reaction transfers 200 kJ of energy to the surroundings. By how much has the energy stored in the chemicals fallen?

Key term

Give one everyday application of an endothermic reaction.

Key term

State the two conditions that must be met before colliding particles will react.

Key term

A student mixes two solutions in a beaker and the beaker becomes warm. What type of energy change has taken place?

Key term

A reaction mixture becomes noticeably colder as it proceeds. State what this tells you about the direction of the energy transfer.

Key term

Explain why not every collision between reactant particles leads to a reaction.

Key term

What two kinds of change to chemical bonds take place in every chemical reaction?

Take Energy Changes further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

  • Exothermic vs Endothermic

    Exothermic: a reaction transferring energy to the surroundings, raising their temperature. Endothermic: a reaction taking in energy from the surroundings, lowering their temperature.

  • Activation energy vs Overall energy change

    Activation energy: the minimum energy that colliding particles need in order to react. Overall energy change: the difference between the reactants' and products' levels on a reaction profile.

  • Bond breaking vs Bond making

    Bond breaking: the endothermic step that takes in the supplied energy at the start. Bond making: the exothermic step that releases energy as the products form.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What happens to the total amount of energy in the universe during a chemical reaction?

    Model answer

    It stays exactly the same, because energy is conserved in chemical reactions.

  2. 2

    If a reaction transfers energy to its surroundings, how does the energy stored in the products compare with the energy stored in the reactants?

    Model answer

    The product molecules store less energy than the reactants, by exactly the amount of energy transferred out.

  3. 3

    A reaction transfers 200 kJ of energy to the surroundings. By how much has the energy stored in the chemicals fallen?

    Model answer

    By 200 kJ, because the energy gained by the surroundings is exactly the energy the chemicals have lost.

  4. 4

    Define an exothermic reaction.

    Model answer

    It is a reaction that transfers energy to the surroundings.

  5. 5

    What happens to the temperature of the surroundings during an exothermic reaction?

    Model answer

    It increases.

  6. 6

    A student mixes two solutions in a beaker and the beaker becomes warm. What type of energy change has taken place?

    Model answer

    An exothermic change, because energy has been transferred from the reaction to the surroundings.

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BSmall molecules make gases and petrol that ignite easily.
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Base means any substance that neutralises an acid.
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Energy Changes revision questions

What does Energy Changes cover in AQA GCSE Combined Science Chemistry?
4 subtopics: exothermic and endothermic reactions, everyday uses, and investigating temperature change, reaction profiles and the energy change of reactions. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is Energy Changes organised?
By the AQA 8464 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

Every question in Energy Changes, on a schedule.

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