UNIT G SECTION 4.

3 CONSERVATION LAWS IN ASTRONOMY Conservation of Energy: energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only change from one form to another Basic Types of Energy o Kinetic: energy of motion, 1/2 mv2 o Radiative: energy carried by light o Potential: stored energy, can be later converted into kinetic or radiative o Standard unit is a joule Thermal Energy o Subcategory of kinetic energy o Collective kinetic energy, as measured by temperature, of many individual particles moving within a substance o Temperature: average kinetic energy of the particles Potential Energy in Astronomy o Gravitational Potential Energy: energy an object has due to its position in a gravitational field, is greater when there is a greater distance to potentially fall o Mass-energy: potential energy of mass, E=mc2 SECTION 5.3 PROPERTIES OF MATTER Democritus thought breaking a rock down into the smallest pieces possible were called atoms o All materials composed of fire, water, earth, and air The atoms of each of these have their own properties Atom: a nucleus made of protons and neutrons, surrounded by a cloud of electrons o Is indivisible, is made of smaller parts o Element: substance made from individual atoms of a particular atomic number o Nucleus: center of the cell, made of protons and neutrons, contains most of the atoms mass, but is 100,000x smaller than the atom o Electrical charge: how strongly an object will interact with electromagnetic fields Ordinary atoms have same number of P and E so charge is 0 Atomic Terminology o Atomic number: number of protons in the nucleus o Atomic mass: combined number of protons and neutrons o Isotope: a version of an element with different numbers of neutrons Molecules: when 2 or more atoms join together o Compound: substance with 2 or more different types of atoms Molecular Dissociation and Ionization o Molecular Dissociation: when molecules into component atoms because of violent collisions b/w the molecules (occurs at very high T well above boiling point) o Ionization: at even higher T than dissociation, collisions can cause electrons to break free, resulting in ions o Plasma: gaseous like state consisting of electrons and positive ions Interacts with light differently than normal gases Pressure: force per unit area

Storing Energy in Atoms o Atoms contain energy in 3 ways Mass energy, mc2 Kinetic energy Electrical potential energy, which depends on the arrangement of their electrons around their nuclei o Energy Levels A particular atom can only have a few possible energy levels Lowest possible energy is called ground state Excited states: each of the higher energy levels o Energy Level Transition: changes in energy level, can only occur when the electron gains or loses the exact amount of energy that separates the 2 levels If electron reaches ionization level, it leaves atom completely