- #1
JFS321
- 75
- 6
All,
I am looking for a logical step that I must be missing in order to understand how heat energy is produced in an exothermic reaction. All of the standard explanations--more heat is given off than is taken in--don't seem satisfying. If heat is the result of the kinetic energy of molecules, how does the creation of new, more stable bonds produce this kinetic energy in the surroundings? I hope this makes sense. I cannot understand how the molecules forming new bonds are imparting this kinetic energy to their neighboring molecules.
I am looking for a logical step that I must be missing in order to understand how heat energy is produced in an exothermic reaction. All of the standard explanations--more heat is given off than is taken in--don't seem satisfying. If heat is the result of the kinetic energy of molecules, how does the creation of new, more stable bonds produce this kinetic energy in the surroundings? I hope this makes sense. I cannot understand how the molecules forming new bonds are imparting this kinetic energy to their neighboring molecules.