Thermodynamics

Alrighty, you've been pretty busy so far. In your study of chemical reactions, you used stoichiometry to tackle the weighty issue of mass changes in a reaction, you used thermochemistry to enlighten yourself on the role of energy in reactions, you used kinetics to speedily describe the rate at which a reaction occurs, and you used equilibrium to balance the curious juxtaposition of both reactants and products in a final reaction mixture. This is all impressive, but it ignores the 500-pound vat of hydrochloric acid in the room: why do these reactions happen at all??? And why do other seemingly-fine reactions //NOT// happen??? To answer these questions, we embark on the profound study of thermodynamics, starting with what it means to be //thermodynamically favorable// (or //spontaneous//), then defining an important concept known as //entropy//, and, finally, learning how to calculate a reaction's //Gibbs free energy//. Your view of the Universe will never be quite the same again.