Today in Chemistry History graphic on Germain Henri Hess, born 7 August 1802. He is known for Hess's Law, published in 1840, which relates to enthalpy changes of reactions and allows for the calculation of unknown enthalpy changes. The graphic shows an example Hess cycle and explains how it can be used to determine enthalpy values.
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On this day back in 1802, Germain Hess was born in Switzerland. Hess would go on to do important work in the field of thermochemistry, the part of chemistry concerned with energy changes in chemical reactions. His work led to the eponymous Hess’s law, explained in the graphic above. Hess also analysed the mineral silver telluride, which was named Hessite in his honour. 

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