CHEMISTRY GLOSSARY

freezing point    →   ledište

Freezing point is the temperature at which a liquid becomes a solid at normal atmospheric pressure.

See Melting point

gas thermometer    →   plinski termometar

Gas thermometer is a device for measuring temperature in which the working fluid is a gas.

heat of fusion    →   toplina taljenja

Heat of fusion or enthalpy of fusion is the heat required to convert a substance from the solid to the liquid state with no temperature change (also called latent heat of fusion or melting).

degree    →   stupanj

1. Degree is a unit of temperature on a specified scale. The temperatures of boiling and freezing water are: in the Fahrenheit system 212 and 32 degrees; in the Celsius system 100 and 0 (zero) degrees.

2. Degree is a unit of angular measure. A circle is divided into 360 degrees, represented by the symbol °. Degrees are each divided into 60 minutes. Each minute has 60 seconds. Symbols for degree, minute, and second for plane angle is placed after the numerical value and a no space between the numerical value and the unit symbol (α = 2°3'4").

3. In algebra, the degree of a polynomial is the highest power of the variable in the polynomial. For example, 4x³ + 3x² + x + 7 have degree 3.

deoxyribonucleic acid    →   dezoksiribonukleinska kiselina

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid with 2-deoxy-D-ribose as the sugar in its nucleotides. DNA contains encoded genetic information, specifically templates for the synthesis of all of an organism’s proteins and enzymes.

DNA was first identified in the 1869 by Swiss chemist Friedrich Miescher (1844-1895). In 1953, American biologist James Dewey Watson (1928-) and English physicist Francis Harry Compton Crick (1916–2004) had discovered that DNA occurs in the cell as a double helix, with two long strands of the molecule wound around each other, and further that the chemical structure of the molecule dictates that adenine (A) always aligns or pairs with thymine (T), and cytosine (C) always pairs with guanine (G). It is this base pairing that allows DNA in a cell to copy itself, and transfer its information to a new cell. The diameter of the helix is 2.0 nm and there is a residue on each chain every 0.34 nm in the z direction. The angle between each residue on the same strand is 36°, so that the structure repeats after 10 residues (3.4 nm) on each strand.

heat of vaporisation    →   toplina isparavanja

Heat of vaporisation or enthalpy of vaporisation is the heat required to convert a substance from the liquid to the gaseous state with no temperature change (also called latent heat of vaporization).

Helmholz free energy    →   Helmholzova slobodna energija

Helmholz free energy (A) is a thermodynamic function defined by A = U - TS, where U is the internal energy, S the entropy, and T the thermodynamic temperature. For a reversible isothermal process ΔA represents the useful work available.

ideal gas    →   idealni plin

Ideal gas is a gas in which there is complete absence of cohesive forces between the component molecules; the behaviour of such a gas can be predicted accurately by the ideal gas equation through all ranges of temperature and pressure. The concept is theoretical, since no actual gas meets the ideal requirement.

dielectric constant    →   dielektrična konstanta

Dielectric constant or permittivity (ε) is an index of the ability of a substance to attenuate the transmission of an electrostatic force from one charged body to another. The lower the value, the greater the attenuation. The standard measurement apparatus utilises a vacuum whose dielectric constant is 1. In reference to this, various materials interposed between the charged terminal have the following value at 20 °C:

The exceptionally high value for water accounts for its unique behaviour as a solvent and in electrolytic solutions. Dielectric constant values decrease as the temperature rises.

differential thermal analysis    →   diferencijalna termalna analiza

Differential thermal analysis (DTA) is a technique that is often used to analyze materials that react or decompose at higher temperatures. The difference in temperature between the sample and an inert reference material is monitored as both are heated in a furnace. Phase transitions and chemical reactions taking place in the sample on heating cause the temperature difference to become larger, at temperatures that are characteristic of the sample.