Question

Living things are constrained by the laws of physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Provide two examples of physical laws.

- For each example explicitly name the law to explain what physiological processes are described by the law using specific examples.

- explain why the limits of the laws constrain the function of animal bodies -

- what does the law limit for each example?

Answer 1

Living things are constrained by the laws of physics,chemistry and mathematics.The two examples for laws of physics in the case of living things are,1.Newton's third law of motion,2.second law of thermodynamics.

In the case of first example when the monkey jump from one tree to another we can say that Newton's third law of motion is applied here which is a law in physics.Newton's third law states that for every action there will be an equal and opposite reaction.when the monkey applied a force on his feet before jumping from the tree,it is the action and when he jump to the other tree we can say that it is the reaction.

In the case of second example food is converted into different forms of energy and we can say that second law of thermodynamics is applied here.The second law of thermodynamics implies that in a natural thermodynamic process,the sum of the entropies of the interacting thermodynamic system increases.When the food reaches the stomach digestion happens which is a natural thermodynamic process then the sum of the energy increases for the thermodynamic system.

The limits of the laws constrain the function of animal bodies because the physical laws are inevitable for the proper function of living thing.we cannot simply avoid these laws because every living thing is utilizing these laws in their daily life without knowing it.we can simply relate many day to day examples with physical laws.

In case 1 the law limit the monkey from jumping to the other tree and in the case of second example the law limit the transformation of energy in stomach from one form to another in the thermodynamic system.