Bio 12 notes
Subject Enzymes
#1: Enzyme
● Enzyme
○ Biological catalyst -> proteins that speed up chemical reactions in the body
without being used up/permanently damaged
↳ do: speed up chemical reaction
lower activation energy
↳ don’t: get used up/consumed
get permanently changed by reaction
● Name often ends in “-ase” -> prefix tells what it acts on
, #2: Activation energy
● Activation energy
○ Amount of energy needed to get chemical reaction to start
● Exergonic reaction
○ Releases energy
○ Still needs activation energy to begin
● Enzyme’s role
○ Lower activation energy required
↳ makes reactions faster
↳ same reaction can happen without enzymes -> they’re just much slower, not
enough to sustain life
↳ doesn’t change if a reaction happens -> just the speed it happens at
● Analogy
○ Activation energy -> hill a ball must roll over to get to the other side
○ Enzymes -> make the hill smaller
Subject Enzymes
#1: Enzyme
● Enzyme
○ Biological catalyst -> proteins that speed up chemical reactions in the body
without being used up/permanently damaged
↳ do: speed up chemical reaction
lower activation energy
↳ don’t: get used up/consumed
get permanently changed by reaction
● Name often ends in “-ase” -> prefix tells what it acts on
, #2: Activation energy
● Activation energy
○ Amount of energy needed to get chemical reaction to start
● Exergonic reaction
○ Releases energy
○ Still needs activation energy to begin
● Enzyme’s role
○ Lower activation energy required
↳ makes reactions faster
↳ same reaction can happen without enzymes -> they’re just much slower, not
enough to sustain life
↳ doesn’t change if a reaction happens -> just the speed it happens at
● Analogy
○ Activation energy -> hill a ball must roll over to get to the other side
○ Enzymes -> make the hill smaller
