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Biology Unit 1 — Life's Chemistry

Bonding & water, the four macromolecules, and enzymes — how living things are built and how reactions inside them are controlled.

Vocabulary bank

Ionic Bond Covalent Bond Hydrogen Bond Cohesion Adhesion Hydration Sphere Monomer / Polymer Dehydration Synthesis Hydrolysis Enzyme / Substrate Activation Energy Denaturation

Before you answer

✓Hydrogen bonds happen BETWEEN separate water molecules, not inside one — the bonds inside a molecule (O–H) are covalent.
✓Lipids = hydrophobic, long-term energy, membranes. Carbohydrates = quick/immediate energy. Don't mix those two up.
✓Dehydration synthesis REMOVES water to build a polymer; hydrolysis ADDS water to break one apart.
✓An enzyme LOWERS activation energy and speeds up a reaction — it is not used up or changed by the reaction.
✓Check a data table's actual numbers before answering "what's the ideal temperature/pH" — it's whichever condition produced the MOST product.