Biology/Chemistry question?

Question

the free energy of oxidation of NADH by O2 is -52.44 kcal/mol
the free energy of oxidation of FADH2 is -47.84 kcal/mol

given the difference in free energy of oxidation of each raction, justify that in general oxidation of NADH gives rise to 3 ATP while oxidation of FADH2 gives rise to only 2 ATP.
is the energy difference alone sufficient to account for this difference?
are there any other ways to account for this difference?

Answer 1

I'm sorry that I do not know anything about the energy oxidation. However, I can tell you why NADH gives off 3 ATP whereas FADH2 gives off only 2 ATP.
If you look at the image of the electron transport chain as you follow along, it would help a lot.
See how NADH pumps out 6 H+?? and 6H+ pumped back in produce 3 ATPs, which means 1 ATP per 2 H+
In FADH2's case, it only pumps out 4 H+, which produce 2 ATPs.

Hope it was simple enough to understand. =)