Question

According to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, a cow converts the energy of glucose into the energy of ATP. What happens to most of the energy in that conversion?

a) It is stored as potential energy in ATP
b) It is used for cellular work
c) It is released as heat into the environment
d) It is converted into chemical energy in the cow's body

Answer 1

Most of the energy from converting glucose to ATP in a cow is released as heat into the environment, in accordance with the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

Step-by-step explanation:

According to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, when a cow converts the energy of glucose into the energy of ATP, most of the energy in that conversion is released as heat into the environment. This is because no energy transfer or transformation is completely efficient, and some amount of energy is inevitably lost in a form that is unusable - typically as heat. Therefore, the correct answer to the student's question is c) It is released as heat into the environment. The energy that is not lost as heat is used to do work within the cell, but the majority is dissipated.