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2.772/5.601/20.110  Thermodynamics of Biomolecular Systems

Fall 2006

Instructors: Robert W Field, Linda G Griffith, Kimberly Hamad

TAs: Katherine Alice Brown, Arthur Goldsipe, Bo Bonnie Huang

Lecture:  MWF10  (32-123)        

Announcements

Wednesday final review session solutions posted

Solutions to Wednesday's review session problems have been posted on the Exams page under Additional Study Problems.

Announced on 20 December 2006  9:34  p.m. by Bo Huang

Short-answer review & Carnot efficiencies

I just posted here (under Exams -> Additional Study Problems) my "short-answer" review from tonight's session. Note that I corrected some of the mistakes that were pointed out during the review, but please email me if you see any others.

Also, I wanted to clarify why there are three different definitions of efficiencies for various engines and pumps:

Update: Prof. Field kindly pointed me to his handout, which I have imported into the 20.110 site here, under Lecture Notes -> Handouts.

* For an engine, you're interested in getting work out, so efficiency is normally defined as -w/q(hot)
* For a refrigerator or air conditioner (the case I was thinking of in the review session), you're normally interested in how much cooling you get for a given amount of work, and efficiency is q(cold)/w
* For a heat pump, you're interested in how much heat you pump into your house for a given amount of work, so efficiency is normally defined as -q(hot)/w.

To summarize, both refrigerators and heat pumps run an engine in reverse to pump heat from a cold reservoir to a hot reservoir. But they have different definitions for efficiency because we're interested in using them for different things (heating v. cooling).

I hope that clears things up!

--Arthur

Announced on 19 December 2006  10:39  p.m. by Arthur Goldsipe

Wednesday review session problems posted

The Wednesday review session problems are posted on the Exams page under Additional Study Problems.
Kate will cover the first two (5-6pm): on DNA hybridization and stat mech.
Bonnie will cover the latter two (6-7pm): on classical thermo from the 5.60 portion of the course.
Solutions will be posted after the review session.

Announced on 19 December 2006  3:44  p.m. by Bo Huang

miscellaneous posts

1) There was a minor mistake in the solution for pset9. For problem 1a, the mols chain/L values should be multiplied by Avogadro's number. The corrected solution has been posted.

2) I did a weak acid titration probelm and a Zimm-Bragg model problem in recitation. Those have been posted on the R02 page.

3) I've posted some additional material from fall 05 (psets, & recitations) that may or may not be helpful. Relevant problems are circled. They are on the Exams page under Additional Study Problems.

Announced on 19 December 2006  1:16  p.m. by Bo Huang

Documents posted for final exam preparation

[This annoucement will be updated as more documents are
posted.]

The following items are posted on the Exams page, Additional Study Problems Section:

  • Two sets of review problems for the final from BE.110, Spring 2005


The following review items are posted on the Exams page, Handouts section:

  • A review of Lectures 1 to 19 has been posted on the Exam page, Handouts section.

  • A review of the BE.110 course from Fall 2005


The following review items are posted on the Exams page, Past Exams section:

  • Problems from the Spring 2006 5.60 final.

  • A surface-tension problem from BE.110 Exam 3, Spring 2005

  • Selected problems from the BE.110 Final, Spring 2005

  • A helix/coil problem from the BE.110 Final, Spring 2004

Announced on 14 December 2006  4:56  p.m. by Arthur Goldsipe

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