Chart reprinted with permission from the New York Energy Education Handbook, New York State Dept. of Education.QUESTIONS:1. What were the most important kinds of energy in the early days of America? What were they used for?2. The American Revolution was in the 1770's. What was the most used fuel then?3. The American Civil War was in the 1860's. What was the most used fuel then?4. Why did coal become so important by 1900?5. Why do you think it took so long for coal to replace wood as the most important fuel?6. What was the most used fuel in 1975. What use did it have?7. Why do you think oil use went down and wood use went up during the 1970's?8. What sources of energy does the U.S. depend on most today?ACTIVITY 2:Match the pictures below with the correct titles._____1. Solar Thermal Energy_____2. Biomass_____3. Hydropower_____4. Wind_____5. Geothermal_____6. PhotovoltaicABCDEFINFORMATION CHECKDirections:After studying the information provided, fill in the blanks below.The ______________ is the original source of almost all the energy on earth. Energy appears in many different forms, but if you trace it back far enough, you find that it all started at the same place: the ____________________.Some sources of energy exist in almost unlimited supply. As soon as we use some energy, it is replaced by more. For this reason, we say that these sources of energy are ________________________.Perhaps the "fastest" energy is ____________________ electricity, which is produced when sunlight strikes solar cells. These are the round, bluish wafers that are mounted on space satellites to give them electric power from sunlight when they are in space.It only takes the sun a few minutes to give us direct solar _________________. You can feel it in a car that sits in the sun. Houses and buildings can be designed to collect sunlight the same way. You can also build solar collectors to trap the sun's heat.The sun heats the earth and the earth warms the air above it. Heated air rises (just like a hot air balloon). When cooler air rushes in to displace the heated air, we have __________________. This energy can be used to sail ships or drive machines to pump water or produce electricity.The sun heats the surface water of lakes and oceans. Some of the water evaporates when it is heated. Then it forms clouds, falls as rain, and collects in lakes and rivers. As this water flows back to the sea it provides _________________ which can drive a turbine to generate electricity.The plants of the earth are solar collectors. By the process of photosynthesis, they use sunlight to produce stored chemical energy that is used for food or fuel. Plant energy is called _______________.Some sources of energy take so long to produce that if we use them up they can't be replaced. ______________________, _________________, and _________________ are like that. Dead plants and animals must decay for hundreds to millions of years to produce these fossil fuels. That is why we say they are _______________________________.RECOMMENDED READING:New York Energy Education Project, Research Foundation of the State University of New York. Albany, NY. 1985TEACHER'S NOTESDEFINITIONS:Are they renewable or nonrenewable? You can decide for yourself. If a source of energy is replaced as we use it, so that we can never use it up, it is called renewable. If there is a definite, limited supply of a source of energy, and it cannot be replaced, it is called nonrenewable. This is an important idea, because it helps us to decide how we should use each of our many sources of energy.Quad -A gigantic energy unit (often used to state how much energy entire countries buy each year). It represents a quadrillion Btu's, the amount of heat energy in 172 million barrels of oil; a unit of energy equal to one quadrillion Btu's (1,000,000,000,000,000).ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS:1. Coal and wood were the most important energy sources in the early days of America.2. The most used fuel during the 1770's was wood.3. During the 1860's wood was still the most used fuel.4. Coal became important just prior to 1900 because of its many uses such as the fuel for steam engines which powered the many railroad engines popular during the period, and fuel for the steam turbines used in the production of electricity. Coal also began to replace wood as a source of heat for commercial and residential buildings.5. Wood remained the most popular fuel for a long period of time because of its abundance and the fact that it was extremely inexpensive.6. Oil was the most important fuel in 1975. Fuel oil derived from oil became extremely important at this time due to the mobility of the world's people and the so called "Shrinking of the globe" by faster and faster means of transportation.7. Oil went down due to energy conservation measures and the high price of fuel oil brought on by the Arab oil embargo.8. The United States is still highly dependent on oil as its main source of energy. This is a serious problem due to its shrinking supply. Alternative sources such as atomic energy, natural gas and renewable sources need to be developed in the near future to avoid catastrophic consequences.ANSWERS TO ACTIVITY 21. = D2. = B3. = A4. = E5. = F6. = CANSWERS TO INFORMATION CHECK:The ____SUN_____ is the original source of almost all the energy on earth. Energy appears in many different forms, but if you trace it back far enough, you find that it all started at the same place: the ______SUN__________.Some sources of energy exist in almost unlimited supply. As soon as we use some energy, it is replaced by more. For this reason, we say that these sources of energy are ____RENEWABLE_______.Perhaps the "fastest" energy is _____SOLAR__________ electricity, which is produced when sunlight strikes solar cells. These are the round, bluish wafers that are mounted on space satellites to give them electric power from sunlight when they are in space.It only takes the sun a few minutes to give us direct solar ____ENERGY_______. You can feel it in a car that sits in the sun. Houses and buildings can be designed to collect sunlight the same way. You can also build solar collectors to trap the sun's heat.The sun heats the earth and the earth warms the air above it. Heated air rises (just like a hot air balloon). When cooler air rushes in to displace the heated air, we have ______WIND________. This energy can be used to sail ships or drive machines to pump water or produce electricity.The sun heats the surface water of lakes and oceans. Some of the water evaporates when it is heated. Then it forms clouds, falls as rain, and collects in lakes and rivers. As this water flows back to the sea it provides ___HYDROPOWER____ which can drive a turbine to generate electricity.The plants of the earth are solar collectors. By the process of photosynthesis, they use sunlight to produce stored chemical energy that is used for food or fuel. Plant energy is called ___BIOMASS_____.Some sources of energy take so long to produce that if we use them up they can't be replaced. _______COAL___________, ______OIL_______, and _____GAS_________ are like that. Dead plants and animals must decay for hundreds to millions of years to produce these fossil fuels. That is why we say they are ________NONRENEWABLE___________.
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