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Energy
What is Energy?
• Energy is the ability to do work. (It makes everything happen.)
• Energy can be found in different forms.
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Chemical energy
Thermal (heat) energy
Electrical energy
Nuclear energy
Mechanical energy
Light (radiant) energy
• There are two main forms of energy:
Potential and Kinetic
Natural Resources
Anything in the
environment that is
used by people.
Energy Facts
• It is measured in joules.
• 1 joule is the amount of energy it takes to move something that weighs 1
pound to a height of 9 inches.
• Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It always exists in one
form or another. We CAN transform it to another type of energy
but we cannot create it.
• A change from one form of energy to another is called energy
transformation or an energy conversion.
Fossil Fuels
Fossil Fuels are energy
formed from fossilized
organic material.
coal
oil
natural gas
These fuels come from
plants and animals that
grew long ago……long long
ago!
Coal
• Solid fossil fuel formed from plant remains.
• People burn coal to produce heat.
• Before coal can be used to produce energy, it has to be mined, or
removed from the ground. Miners use machines to chop the coal
into chunks and lift it to the surface.
• Coal is the most plentiful fossil fuel in the United States. It is
easy to transport and provides a lot of energy when burned.
• (Pass around the piece of coal.)
Oil
• Oil is a thick, black, liquid fossil fuel. It formed from the remains
of small animals, algae, and other organisms that lived in oceans
and shallow inland seas long ago.
• Petroleum is another name for oil.
• Oil accounts for more that 1/3 of the energy produced in the
world.
Natural Gas
• It is a mixture of methane and other gases.
• Forms from some of the same organisms as oil.
• Because it is less dense than oil, natural gas often rises above an
oil deposit, forming a pocket of gas in the rock.
• Colorless and odorless.
Lets watch Bill Nye!
• http://youtu.be/FbMo3ZsXZv4
Disadvantages to Fossil Fuels
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Coal mining can increase erosion.
Run off from coal mines can cause water pollution.
Burning it causes air pollution.
Gas is highly flammable
They are a non-renewable resource so depletion is a true concern.
Non-renewable resources?
• Resources that take hundreds of millions of years to form……
• There is a true concern that we will overuse them and run out of
them.
What is the solution?
• Talk amongst yourselves and discuss what some solutions to the
problem of fossil fuels might be.
• Discuss how you might get the world to go along with your ideas.