Ch 1-8 Test essays:

1.            Suppose that you have isolated an extract from a tissue and you have found that the extract speeds up the rate of a particular reaction. What kind of information would you need to demonstrate that the substance responsible for increasing the rate of this reaction is an enzyme? Explain how this information would indicate that the catalytic effect is due to an enzyme.

 

2.         Witnesses in a court of law are asked to "swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth" What are the problems inherent in this statement? How do laws in science differ from legal laws?  What factors lead to "junk science"?

 

3.         After an enzyme is mixed with its substrate, the amount of product formed is
determined at 10-second intervals for 1 minute. Data from this experiment
are shown below:
 

Time (sec) 

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Product formed (mg)

0.00

0.25

0.50

0.70

0.80

0.85

0.85


 

 

Draw a graph of these data and answer the following questions.

a. What is the initial rate of this enzymatic reaction?

b. What is the rate after 50 seconds? Why is it different from the initial rate?

c. What would be the effect on product formation if the enzyme were heated to a temperature of 100 oC for 10 minutes before repeating the experiment? Why?

d. How might altering the substrate concentration affect the rate of the reaction? Why?

e. How might altering the pH affect the rate of reaction? Why?

 

4.         The unique properties of water make life possible on earth. Select three (3)  properties of water and:

 

a)     for each property, identify/define the property and explain it in terms of the physical/ chemical nature of water.
b) for each property, describe one (1) example of how the property affects the functioning of living organisms.

 

5.          Membranes are important structural features of cells.

(a)    Describe how membrane structure is related to the transport of materials  across a membrane.

      

(b)    Describe the role of membranes in the synthesis of ATP in either cellular  respiration or photosynthesis.

                    


6. 
      A laboratory assistant prepared solutions of 0.8 M, 0.6 M, 0.4 M, and 0.2 M sucrose, but forgot to label them. After realizing the error, the assistant              randomly labeled the  flasks containing these four unknown solutions as flask A, flask B, flask C, and flask D.

 

Design an experiment, based on the principles of diffusion and osmosis, that the
assistant could use to determine which of the flasks contains each of the four unknown solutions.

 

            Include in your answer

            (a) a description of how you would set up and perform the experiment;

            (b) the results you would expect from your experiment;and

            (c) an explanation of those results based on the principles involved.

            (Be sure to clearly state the principles addressed in your discussion.)