Question

1. The bodies of adult humans are composed of 55-60% water. Using the information from this unit on specific heat and heat transfer, how does the water help us to disperse heat and regulate our body temperatures? 2. Hydrocarbons and their derivatives are organic compounds that contain carbon and hydrogen, and they easily undergo combustion in air to produce carbon dioxide and water. Octanol (C8H17OH) is an organic alcohol, which is a derivative of the eight carbon hydrocarbon octane. When burned in air, octanol has an enthalpy of combustion of - 5294 kJ. Based on the information provided, write the balanced thermochemical equation for the combustion of octanol. Please EXPLAIN how you developed the equation and what this equation tells about the reaction.

Answer 1

Q1) Water has a high specific heat (also known as heat capacity), meaning it can absorb a lot of heat before its temperature rises. The water in every cell of the human body acts as a buffer against sudden temperature changes. Blood is also largely composed of water, and moves towards vital organs when your body needs to conserve heat. Without water regulating temperature, all enzymes in our body would most likely denature as well.

Q2) C8H17OH + 12O2 yields 8CO2 + 9H2O + 5294kJ (exothermic reaction). To do this, I first wrote down the equation without adding coefficients. Then, underneath I created a table that had every element that took part in the reaction. I then went ahead and wrote the number of elements in each compound for every element in the reaction (in each respective row). Finally, I balanced the equation by going from top to bottom, adding coefficients until everything was balanced, changing the number of elements in each compounds until they were equal on both sides.