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Can someone try to explain how ATP provides energy?

B

BigToque

Lifer
I'm taking cell biology right now (6 years after taking intro biology) and while I follow along and see all these processes using ATP and converting it to ADP+Pi, I've realized I don't actually have any clue as to why this is producing energy.

I've read a bunch of websites, they're all saying the same things but for whatever reason I just can't seem to understand where the "energy" comes from.

This is what I know...

I eat some food, my body digests it and takes the carbohydrates and converts them to glucose. The glucose gets turned into ATP and I've got a bunch of ATP floating around in my body waiting to be used. When I lift a rock, I need to use some ATP to provide the energy to do that work.

So what's actually happening that causes "energy" to transfer from the ATP to [X] (where X can be whatever is needing the "energy"?
 
Originally posted by: dquan97
Originally posted by: Legendary
destruction of chemical bonds releases energy?
Click to expand...

Basically, (long story short) conversion from ATP to ADP converts potential energy to kinetic energy.
Click to expand...

...Which allows Myosin to release actin, and a muscular contraction cycle to reset. In muscle. There are other mechanisms in other situations.
 
Originally posted by: ja1484
Originally posted by: dquan97
Originally posted by: Legendary
destruction of chemical bonds releases energy?
Click to expand...

Basically, (long story short) conversion from ATP to ADP converts potential energy to kinetic energy.
Click to expand...

...Which allows Myosin to release actin, and a muscular contraction cycle to reset. In muscle. There are other mechanisms in other situations.
Click to expand...

all of this.

 
Originally posted by: dquan97
Originally posted by: Legendary
destruction of chemical bonds releases energy?
Click to expand...

Basically, (long story short) conversion from ATP to ADP converts potential energy to kinetic energy.
Click to expand...

When you say "releases kinetic energy" I think of the P shooting off after a midget wearing a t-shirt labeled "enzyme" cuts its connection with AT with a chainsaw. The P then strikes a midget (wearing a shirt labeled "kinetic energy") in the head which lets him know to pull a cord which is attached to a bone. This happens to thousands of midgets at once to produce a muscle contraction. Is that what you mean by "produces kinetic energy"?
 
Take a flask of some acid anhydride and add water to it. Maybe a drop of acid to get things going. It'll probably get quite warm depending on how concentrated it is. There's a lot of heat given off by that hydrolysis.
 
Originally posted by: SlitheryDee
When you say "releases kinetic energy" I think of the P shooting off after a midget wearing a t-shirt labeled "enzyme" cuts its connection with AT with a chainsaw. The P then strikes a midget (wearing a shirt labeled "kinetic energy") in the head which lets him know to pull a cord which is attached to a bone. This happens to thousands of midgets at once to produce a muscle contraction. Is that what you mean by "produces kinetic energy"?
Click to expand...

I was going to say the exact same thing...
 
Originally posted by: SlitheryDee
Originally posted by: dquan97
Originally posted by: Legendary
destruction of chemical bonds releases energy?
Click to expand...

Basically, (long story short) conversion from ATP to ADP converts potential energy to kinetic energy.
Click to expand...

When you say "releases kinetic energy" I think of the P shooting off after a midget wearing a t-shirt labeled "enzyme" cuts its connection with AT with a chainsaw. The P then strikes a midget (wearing a shirt labeled "kinetic energy") in the head which lets him know to pull a cord which is attached to a bone. This happens to thousands of midgets at once to produce a muscle contraction. Is that what you mean by "produces kinetic energy"?
Click to expand...
Tune in next week to see SlitheryDee's Dancing Meatloaf explain the theory of general relativity!


 
Originally posted by: Brainonska511
Originally posted by: TheVrolok
Originally posted by: Newfie
Originally posted by: SirStev0
Chemistry 101.
Click to expand...

Fixed.
Click to expand...

Refixed. Bond energy isn't exactly biochem. 😛
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But biochem 101 will cover how ATP provides energy, while chem 101 will not cover ATP or biological mechanisms specifically.
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Yeah but if he actually knew Chem 101, ATP --> ADP + P should not baffle him
 
Energy transfer is all about endothermic and exothermic reactions; potential energy to kinetic energy.

Anything that produces "work" and eventually has a heat byproduct is a conversion of energies. To be precise, no energy is "produced", it is simply converted.
 
Originally posted by: SagaLore
Energy transfer is all about endothermic and exothermic reactions; potential energy to kinetic energy.

Anything that produces "work" and eventually has a heat byproduct is a conversion of energies. To be precise, no energy is "produced", it is simply converted.
Click to expand...

Take your conservation of energy and shove it!
 
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