Video Notes Flashcards: Homeostasis, Entropy, and Diffusion

Vocabulary flashcards covering concepts mentioned in the notes: homeostasis, entropy, second law, partial pressure, diffusion, the differential d, diffusion coefficient, and concentration gradient.

Homeostasis

Maintenance of stable internal conditions (e.g., temperature, pH, ion balance) in an organism despite external changes.

Entropy

A measure of disorder or randomness in a system; tends to increase in isolated systems.

Second Law of Thermodynamics

In natural processes, total entropy tends to increase; energy transformations are not perfectly efficient.

Partial Pressure

The pressure that a given gas would exert if it alone occupied the entire volume of the mixture.

Diffusion

Movement of particles from regions of higher concentration to lower concentration due to random motion.

d (differential)

A differential representing an infinitesimal change; in dC/dx, it denotes the rate of change of concentration with distance.

Diffusion Coefficient (D)

A constant that quantifies how quickly a substance diffuses; appears in Fick’s law (J = -D dC/dx).

Concentration Gradient

The change in concentration over distance that drives diffusion from high to low concentration.