The Types of Energy Used in Everyday Life

Workbook 1: Energy and Us
NSWTSCN205AUndertake scientific investigations into energy and fossil fuels

Contents

What is energy?

The Types of Energy used in Everyday Life

Activity 1: Types of Energy

Activity 2: Examples of Energy

Energy Transformations

Activity 3: Energy transformations

Activity 4: Observing Energy Transformations

Personal Energy needs

Activity 5: Respiration

Activity 6: Guarana Energy Drinks

Photosynthesis

Activity 7: Photosynthesis

Fossil Fuels

Activity 8: Humans and the Carbon cycle

Coal

Activity 9: Coal formation

Oil and Natural Gas

Activity 10: Oil and Natural Gas

Activity 11: Personal Energy Audit

Designing an Energy Efficient House

Activity 12: Energy efficient buildings

Activity 13: Testing Energy efficient factors

Activity 14: Comparing Energy Consumption

The energy situation in rural Senegal

Appendix: Training package information

What is energy?

Energy is defined as the ability to do work. For example the petrol we put into a car can be considered as a source of energy, as it will allow the car to do work, such as climbing a hill, carrying a load or moving at a certain speed

The Types of Energy used in Everyday Life

The life style that you enjoy is only possible because we have the ability to utilise raw materials from the earth and harness various forms of energy.

In our lives we come across numerous forms of energy. Scientists recognise that there are three main types of energy:

Potential Energy

This form of energy can be considered as stored energy.

The nucleus of an atom has enormous amounts of stored energy that can be released when the atoms is ‘split’. We call this nuclear potential energy and when we release the energy to produce electricity it is called nuclear energy.

Getty Images

Likewise the food you eat which contains substances such as glucose which can be ‘burnt’ in the body’s cells to release energy, is another example of stored energy – chemical potential energy.

Even an object such as a heavy weight held above the ground has the potential of doing work if it falls – gravitational potential energy.

Kinetic Energy

This form of energy is associated with an object moving.

Getty Images

We are all familiar with the idea that a speeding car has energy, enough for instance to destroy a fence if it were to hit it. Likewise a meteorite hurtling in from space can blast impressive craters in the ground, such as the Wolf creek meteorite crater in Western Australia or those on the moon are excellent examples of kinetic energy.

Any object that is moving has kinetic energy irrespective of its speed. Even a snail has kinetic energy, although not much, it has some.

There are some types of kinetic energy that we give special names to:

• Sound energy – relies on the vibrations of particles in the air and other media
• Electrical energy – relies on the movement of electrons

Radiation

This form of energy is the sort of energy that is released by an object and which can travel through space at the speed of light.

Flexible Learning Toolboxes – Toolbox 1202

Radio waves, Microwaves, Infrared, Light, Ultraviolet, X-rays and Gamma rays are all examples of energy that is also known as radiation.

Activity 1: Types of Energy

Complete the following table by either identifying the type of energy the example represents OR suggest an example that corresponds to the type of energy given.

Type of Energy / Examples
A rock sitting high on a mountain
Chemical potential energy
The sun’s rays
Kinetic energy
Falling water
Radiation
Sound

Energy is associated with every activity you are involved in and every material you use. Consider a pair of roller blades. When you move you have kinetic energy which is only possible because you burnt some sugar (glucose) in your muscles which once represented stored chemical potential energy. As you move, sound is produced which is really just vibrating air, another form of kinetic energy. Due to the exercise, your body gets hot and friction associated with the moving parts of the roller blades also produce heat. Using a ‘night scope’ similar to those used by the army, you would be able to see the heat coming off both your body and the roller blades. The heat that we see is actually infrared radiation, another example of energy. Finally, in making the roller blades, large quantities of energy has been used, possibly in the form of electricity, heat, sound and kinetic.

Activity 2: Examples of Energy

Go to the No petrol! animation.
How many examples of energy are shown or mentioned in the clip?
List them below – see if you can find 10. /

Energy Transformations

We recognise that energy has one very important characteristic:

You have seen that energy occurs in many forms. Scientists have found from doing experiments that energy can be changed into different forms but can never be created or destroyed. This is known as the principle of conservation of energy.

Another way of putting this is:

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but can change from one form to another.

If you put chemical potential energy in petrol into a motor car engine, this energy can be changed into useful mechanical energy to make the car move. Some of the energy is also changed into heat and sound due to friction in the moving parts of the engine. The heat and sound energy are not useful in making the car go and are a waste of the energy in the petrol. The more efficient a motor car engine is, the less energy is wasted.

This energy flow can be shown in an energy flow diagram.

Energy flow diagram for a car

Activity 3: Energy transformations

Draw an energy flow diagram for each of the following situations.

1. Light globe
   

1. Lawnmower
   

1. Fireworks
   

Activity 4: Observing Energy Transformations

Part A

The following short exercises in observing energy changes will require you to perform mini-experiment OR observe a demonstration. You are expected to identify:

• Where the initial energy has come from.
• The type of energy it represents.
• How the energy has transformed, which may require you to recognise a number of types of energy that result from the transformation.
• Draw an energy transformation flow diagram, similar to that presented on the previous page.

Note: your teacher will give you clear instructions. Your teacher may also provide you with other examples of energy transformations.

Experiment / Original type of energy / Where the energy has come from / Observed energy transformations
Solar cell connected to an electric motor
Heat lamp on skin
Tuning Fork

Part B

Design and demonstrate to your teacher two more examples of energy transformations.

This item could be a portfolio item – designing an experiment.

Personal Energy needs

• All living organisms require energy. Moving, growing, making certain substances responding to the environment, digesting, excreting and reproducing, all require an organism to use energy.
• The energy that your body used to perform these functions comes from the foods you eat. Once digested the food you have eaten is made available to all of the 9 billion cells in your body. These cells can choose to use the nutrients they receive to make new substances or to ‘burn’ them to gain energy.
• Much of the food you eat is carbohydrates, such as sugars and starch.
• All carbohydrates once digested in your body are converted to glucose. Glucose is the substance that all cells are able to convert to energy. The process by which glucose, a simple sugar is ‘burnt’ to produce the energy needed by the cell is called cellular respiration.
• Without the ability to burn glucose, your cells would fail to function and die similar to a car running out of petrol.
• The process of cellar respiration can best be represented by the following word equation:
  

GLUCOSE + OXYGEN CARBON DIOXIDE + WATER + ENERGY

Activity 5: Respiration

1. Where does the glucose come from that the cells use to obtain energy?

1. Where does the oxygen come from that the cells use to burn glucose, to obtain energy?

1. What do you believe happens to the carbon dioxide and water that are products of this reaction?

Activity 6: Guarana Energy Drinks

Help Greg out – go to Wikipediaat find out about guarana energy drinks. List a few points in the space below. /

So our bodies produce energy from the food we eat. But remember, energy can not be created! It can only be transformed.

Where does the energy that we get from our food come from? When an animal eats some plant material, the animal takes in the energy from the plant. When an animal eats another animal it takes in energy from the animal it has eaten. So it is with humans as well. Eating a hamburger gives you energy. Whatever we eat, the energy stored in that food originally came from the sun.

Photosynthesis

Plants have the ability to make their own food by a process called photosynthesis.

• Plants contain a pigment called Chlorophyll that has the ability to absorb some of the energy from the sun in the form of light.
• The sun energy once absorbed by the plant is used to chemically react carbon dioxide and water.
• When carbon dioxide and water react they form glucose and oxygen.
• Once the plant makes glucose it may store it as sugar or starch, or it may allow it to be ‘burnt’ in the process of cellular respiration.
• If the glucose is used in cellular respiration, then energy is released which can be used by the plants cells for various purposes.
• The energy released in this way is the same energy that was originally absorbed as sunlight by the plant.

Activity 7: Photosynthesis

1. In the space provided write the word equation for photosynthesis as described above.

1. Complete the flow diagram showing how the energy in sunlight has interacted with the plant

Fossil Fuels

Coal, oil and natural gas are all fossil fuels. They are made from carbon and hydrogen atoms bonded together in different ways and are all formed from organic material.

Living things take in water, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen and use them to live and grow. Plants and animals also breathe, produce waste products, and eventually die and decompose. Decomposition releases substances back into the biosphere, so other living things can use them.

Elements that are necessary for life tend to move between the physical environment and living organisms in cycles

The following diagram is of the natural Carbon Cycle.

Fossil fuels are important here. Fossil fuels include; oil, gas, coal. They are called fossil fuels because they were once living things. The carbon in these once living things has been preserved and converted to fuels. This is a long slow process, but has left us with huge reserves of fuel that can be mined and used for energy.

When fossil fuels are burnt they produce energy and release carbon back into the atmosphere.
If you hold a lit candle under a piece of paper, the black soot that is produced is carbon.

Activities that affect the Carbon cycle:

• Burning of Fossil fuels
• Motor vehicle emission
• Emissions from factories and electricity generation
• Mining of coal, oil, gas
• Increase in the population of animals (especially humans)
• Land clearing and deforestation.

Activity 8: Humans and the Carbon cycle

Look carefully at the diagram of “The natural carbon cycle” and the list above.

Example of how humans add Carbon to the atmosphere / Examples of how humans take Carbon from the atmosphere
Driving motor vehicles
/ Planting more trees

1. Is your table a bit one sided?

1. Did you find that human activities are putting more carbon in the atmosphere than taking it out?

Fossil fuels were formed millions of years ago, when continents experienced wetter and warmer climates than today. At the time, there were large areas of poorly drained, flat coast and river deltas, with thick, swampy plant growth. This was the environment that led to the formation of fossil fuels.

Coal

Coal is a combustible, sedimentary, organic rock formed from ancient vegetation, which has been consolidated between other rock strata and transformed by the combined effects of microbial action, pressure and heat over a considerable time period. This process is referred to as 'coalification'.

Layered between other sedimentary rocks, coal is found in seams ranging from less than a millimetre in thickness to many metres.

Coal Formation

Millions of years ago, many areas on Earth were affected by a climate that was much wetter and warmer than is experienced today. Many coastal basins and deltas were poorly drained and these areas supported dense swamps and forests.

Over time, plants in these forests and swamps grew, died and fell down and began to decay. This continued for a very long time, resulting in the formation of a soft, rich material called peat. The leaves, bark and wood of the plants making up peat can often still be recognised.

Initially peat, the precursor of coal, was converted into lignite or brown coal - coal types with low organic 'maturity'. Over many more millions of years, the continuing effects of temperature and pressure produced additional changes in the lignite, progressively increasing its maturity and transforming it into the range known as sub-bituminous coals.

As this process continued, further chemical and physical changes occurred until these coals became harder and more mature, at which point they are classified as bituminous or hard coals. Under the right conditions, the progressive increase in the organic maturity continued, ultimately to form anthracite.

If the pressure and heat were more intense, or continued for a longer period of time, black coal would be produced. Black coal is a solid rock, much harder than brown coal.

Australia's oldest deposits of black coal, found in NSW and Queensland, were formed between 225 and 180 million years ago. However, younger black coals mined in Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania are between 140 and 180 million years old. Victoria's brown coal deposits are young by comparison, formed less than 45 million years ago

Australia's Coal Deposits

NSW Coal Deposits

Coal Deposits in NSW

Australian Institute for Energy, Coal Fact sheet,

Activity 9: Coal formation

1. Which rock family does coal belong to?

1. What is peat? What does peat look like?

1. How is peat changed into coal?

1. How long ago did most of Australia’s coal form?

1. How many different stages are there in coal formation?

1. Name the five major coalfields in NSW and one town in each area.

Australian's get most of the energy resources from fossils fuel. Due to the many problems associated with fossil fuels there is a lot of interest in finding other sources of energy. Energy can be grouped into Renewable or Non-renewable.

The distinction between renewable and non-renewable lies in the time period over which the resource is replaced.

1. Classify each of the following energy types as either renewable or non-renewable.

Energy Source / Renewable (R) / Non-renewable (N/R)
Coal
Oil
Timber
Sun
Wind

Oil and Natural Gas

Oil and gas were formed from organisms of all kinds that lived over 70 million years ago. This organic debris of former life was buried and transformed into petroleum by chemical reactions in sediments. When the present stores of oil and gas are used up there will be no more for following generations.

Oil and gas are only found where there is permeable rock covered by a layer of non permeable rock which traps the oil and gas.

Crude oil cannot be used directly out of the ground. It must first be 'refined' to separate it into useful components. The temperature at which each hydrocarbon becomes a gas is different and this is the basis for separation of crude oil by distillation.

Oil

Australian proven oil reserves are estimated at 3.5 thousand million barrels or 0.3% of the world’s total. Australia is about the 26th largest oil producer in the world. In 2003 Australia produced 225 million barrels of crude oil, condensate and liquefied petroleum gas. Australia is not self sufficient in oil. Most of the oil found in Australia is light oil so Australia imports about 10% of its oil needs in the form of heavier oils for refining into lubricating oils, grease and bitumen.

Australia's main oil producing area for more than 25 years was the Bass Straight region, off the coast of Victoria. It is now the Carnarvon Basin on the North West Shelf of Western Australia. In 2003 it produced almost 60% of Australia's total output of crude oil and condensate while the Gippsland basin produced 23%. The Timor Sea is becoming increasingly important, with 12% of Australia's crude oil and condensate in 2003.

Natural Gas

Australian proven gas reserves are estimated at 1,443 billion cubic metres or 1% of the world’s total. The largest reserves are on the North West Shelf of Australia. Australia is about the 16th largest producer of natural gas in the world with about 1.3% of the world’s total.