Download Some interesting facts about ENERGY

Some interesting facts about ENERGY
1. Energy cannot be seen or touched
2. We eat food to give us energy to MOVE
3. To make anything move we must charge it with energy
4. When energy is being used we say that WORK is being done
5. All energy on earth ultimately comes from the sun, from the food we consume to the oil
in the ground.
6. Sometimes energy sources are classified as
 Capital energy (non-renewable)
 Income energy (renewable)
7. Capital energy are sources of energy that once used cannot be replaced
8. Income energy generally refers to solar/wind energy which is an endless resource
9. The main forms of capital energy (fossil fuels) are Oil, Gas and Coal
10. Present estimates predict that current oil reserves will run dry within 50 years.
11. Whilst new reserves are being discovered all of the time, current consumption is
growing at an alarming rate.
12. Energy consumption can be divided into 4 main areas
 Industry 32%
 Domestic use 28%
 Transport 26%
 Other 14%
13. The future energy needs for mankind will ultimately have to come from sources other
than fossil fuels.
14. These include Solar, Wind, Wave, Hydro-electric, Geo-thermal.
15. Nuclear fuel is also extremely efficient as 1kg of Uranium can produce the same
energy as one million kg of coal. However, the waste produced from nuclear energy is
very harmful and remains that way for hundreds of years.
16. There are many different types of energy, but these generally exist in 2 forms.
 Kinetic Energy (Movement)
 Potential Energy (Stored)
17. Over the past 100 years mankind has found many ways to utilise energy in many
different ways. The most obvious examples are changing chemical energy into
electrical energy (eg burning oil or coal creates heat that in turn is used to drive
turbines, which produce electrical energy). However, in almost every single item we
use in our everyday lives some form of conversion is taking place, sometimes several
forms of conversion which is called an ENERGY CHAIN.
18. For example, when you eat your breakfast you gain energy (chemical), when you rub
your hands together some of that energy is converted into heat energy (by friction). If
you lift something up you are using mechanical energy, if you drop something to the
floor that mechanical energy is converted into kinetic energy.
19. The energy chain actually begins long before you eat your breakfast or drink a cup of
tea in the morning
20. Look at this energy chain :
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Millions of years ago radiant energy from the sun created trees and plants
Movement of the earths crust (mechanical energy) compresses these plants
over millions of years and this turns this into coal.
Mechanical energy is required to extract the coal from the ground and transport
it to the power station.
The coal (chemical energy) is converted into heat energy and eventually into
electrical energy at the power station
Electrical energy is converted back into heat energy to boil the water
You will use mechanical energy to pour the water into a cup and hopefully have
enough energy to drink the tea !!!
21. The most obvious conversion is changing electrical energy into mechanical energy to
carry out some form of work.
22. The Work Done is calculated by multiplying the FORCE used by the DISTANCE
moved.
WORK DONE = FORCE x DISTANCE
= Newtons x Metres
= Nm
1Nm = 1 Joule
Generally speaking, Energy is measured in Joules
23. An oil tanker carrying about 4500 litres of oil contains about 160 thousand million
joules of energy
24. One thousand million joules is called a gigajoule. So the oil tanker above is carrying
160 gigajoules.
24. On a smaller scale a typical HP battery contains about 150joules of energy
25. A typical car petrol tank (50l) contains as much energy as 12 million HP batteries
26. Whether we like it or not our lives depend upon energy in one form or another and the
amount of energy that we are consuming is now at the forefront of almost every
governments agenda. For example 100W light bulbs are now being phased out across
Europe.
27. It takes 7 million joules of energy to make one aluminium can, 4 million to make a
plastic bottle and 5 million to make a glass milk bottle. A cardboard box to make any of
these items will take another 10 million joules. In most cases all of these items are are
currently discarded and the energy used in production is wasted.
28. Imagine how much energy is used to produce a motor car that spends its life using
capital energy resources.
29. Significant steps have been made in recent years to conserve energy and many
countries now give incentive payments for people to insulate their homes and drive
more fuel efficient cars. Recycling, has now become trendy and many rubbish tips in
the UK now enable the public to discard their rubbish into different containers that will
eventually be recycled (eg glass, metal, plastic, cardboard, wood etc).
30. This may seem a small step, but if everyone does a bit the potential energy savings
are enormous.
31. Sustainable energy, energy conservation, recycling should be on the minds of every
young engineer, architect or designer.
Do you agree or disagree with this statement.
"Be the change you want to see in the world"
(Ghandi)
"If not us, then who?
If not now, then when?"
(Nelson Mandela)
"Now is the time to act."
(David Attenborough)
"Live simply so that others may simply live."
(Ghandi)
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
(George Bernard Shaw)
"There
is no unmet need to reduce consumption. However, ... in Africa,
there is considerable unmet need for family planning."
(John Guillebaud, British Medical Journal)
If the Earth were only a few feet in diameter,
floating a few feet above a field somewhere, people would come from
everywhere to marvel at it. People would walk around it marvelling at its
big pools of water, its little pools and the water flowing between. People
would marvel at the bumps on it and the holes in it. They would marvel at
the very thin layer of gas surrounding it and the water suspended in the
gas. The people would marvel at all the creatures walking around the
surface of the ball and at the creatures in the water. The people would
declare it as sacred, because it was the only one, and they would protect
it so that it would not be hurt. The ball would be the greatest wonder
known, and people would come to pray to it, to be healed, to gain
knowledge, to know beauty and to wonder how it could be. People would
love it and defend it with their lives because they would somehow know
that their lives could be nothing without it.
If the Earth were only a few feet in diameter.
(Joe Miller)