Download Energy Study Guide Key

Name: _________________________________________________
Date: _____________
Bell #: ____________
Unit 1 Energy Study Guide
Directions: Answer the following questions using your notes, class work assignments, quizzes,
and book.
1. How is the potential energy increased? Increase the object’s height and/or increase the
object’s mass
2. Explain the transfer of energy. Give 3 examples. When one form of energy changes into
another form of energy; gasoline in a lawn mower – chemical to mechanical; coal-power
plants – chemical to electrical; light bulb – electrical to heat and light; toaster – electrical
to heat; power drill – electrical to mechanical; a lite candle – chemical to light
3. What is potential energy? Energy that is stored or at rest
4. What is kinetic energy? Energy that is in motion
5. List and briefly explain the non-renewable energy sources.
a. Coal: formed from the remains of plants and animals (decaying vegetation) under
pressure and heat; used by power plants to generate electricity; can damage
ecosystems
b. Oil: made from plants and animals that lived millions of years ago; makes gasoline
c. Natural gas: formed from the remains of plants and animals that were under pressure
and heat
d. Fossil Fuels: formed from the remains of organisms
6. List and briefly explain the renewable energy sources.
a. Wind: uneven heating of the earth’s surface by the sun; used to make electricity and
thought to be always available
b. Hydroelectric power (water): created on rivers; uses renewable natural resources;
generates electrical energy
c. Solar: energy from the sun; used to heat homes; does not convert mechanical energy
to electrical energy
d. Geothermal: heat that comes from inside the earth by magma
e. Biomass: energy that comes from wood, trees, crops, animal manure, and human
sewage
7. List and describe the forms of potential energy.
a. Chemical: energy stored in chemical bonds; found in batteries
b. Nuclear: energy stored in the nucleus of an atom; sun, stars, nuclear bomb
c. Elastic potential: energy that can be stretched or compressed; bow and arrow, rubber
band
d. Gravitational potential: energy that depends on the height of an object
8. List and describe the forms of kinetic energy.
a. Electromagnetic: energy that travels in waves; main source is from the sun; light, CT
scan; X-ray
b. Electrical: moving electric charges that produce electricity; electric car, phone
charger, lightning
c. Mechanical: energy associated with motion and position of an object; clock, fan,
school bus
d. Thermal/heat: total energy of particles in a substance; melting ice cream, hot stove
9. What is a renewable resource? An energy source that is always available to produce
energy; humans won’t run out
10. What is a non-renewable resource? An energy source that exists in limited quantities or
amounts
11. Describe the three ways heat is transferred.
a. Radiation: energy transfers in rays or waves; the sun’s rays, from a hot stove
b. Conduction: energy transfer when molecules touch one another; a hot spoon in
hot soup
c. Convection: energy transfer by the flow of a material or fluid; convection currents
heat the atmosphere or in the oceans