3. Summarize the process of the “stormy voyage to the island of stability" described at the end of the article.

the dissolution of polymer can be thermodynamically described in 2 steps.

a. energy is absorbed in the reaction.

if in a given reaction the energy of products is greater than the energy of reactants it means that reaction is endothermic and during the reaction, the energy is absorbed by reactants. in an endothermic reaction, the products have more stored chemical energy than the reactants. and in this reaction the reactants are more stable than products before the compounds with less energy are always more stable.

there are two significant figures.