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"The energy idea works, and if you want to keep the spring idea, you have to realize that new springs replace old springs, and enough work can break springs. "
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I can see how it could be helpful to keep the spring idea. I need to work with students a bit and see if I can determine which method seems to work best for my students and me. Our chemistry students haven't had physics yet, so they don't have a formal understanding of electrical potential energy. I don't know if their pre-conceptions would be accurate enough to work here.
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YES, we do a disservice to them . Conservation of mass false in chemical reactions; conservation of energy is true... the O=O molecule does NOT contain two O atoms, but it is formed from two O atoms (with the release of energy as mcc decreases), and we can extract (with a little work) two O atoms. How do we know that it doesn't have two O atoms? Because an O=O molecule will not react with other atoms in the same way that two separate O atoms will.
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Have to say I've never heard this before.
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Another example: a deuteron is formed from the combination of a proton and a neutron, but the deuteron IS NOT does not contain a proton and a neutron. How do we know? Because 1) it doesn't have enough mass and 2) a neutron will decay into a proton, electron, and anti-neutrino but the deuteron is stable... So we colloquially say that the O-16 nucleus has 8 protons and 8 neutrons, but it really doesn't, because there is mass missing. There are no distinct particles in the nucleus.
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Have to say I've never heard this before.
Are you selling bridges too?
Is the above all functional when we think of the particles as excitation in a field? If so, I don't know that my 10th and 11th graders are ready for that. We still have a challenge getting used to gravitational fields and how to think of them. If it doesn't work for my students, it is still worth understanding myself. maybe i will find a way to make it work for my students one day.
Thanks for the help.
This thread has been tremendously helpful for me.
I need to review more Gibbs, Enthalpy, and Entropy material (obviously). This is my second time teaching chemistry since i minored in it some 20 years ago. The rust is showing.