Resources Study Guide Review

The official definition is that it takes longer than 100 years, but it often takes millions. There's two types of non renewable energy that we talked about, and they are fossil fuels. Which are formed from the remains of ancient plants and animals. This comes in three forms. We have oil, which is also called petroleum. It is a thick black liquid, and we use it as fuel. Then there is a natural gas. This is a mixture of methane and other gases. And lastly, we have coal, which is the solid form of fossil fuels. And this is the one that causes the most air pollution. They all cause air pollution, but this one causes the most. The other type of non renewable energy we talked about was nuclear, this comes from the energy that is stored in the nucleus of an atom. And we get it by breaking that nucleus apart. 

There is an enormous amount of energy in the bonds that hold that nucleus together that's released when we do that. The other category of resources that we have are renewable and renewable means that they can be replaced in a relatively short time within 100 years. A few types that we talked about are solar, which is light energy from the sun. That's going to be around as long as the sun is around. Then there's wind, which comes from the mechanical energy of moving air. And the way we capture that is we use wind turbines. The wind spins that propeller looking thing and it turns the turbine, which produces electricity for us. We also talked about biomass fuels. These are fuels that were made from things that were once alive. The prefix bio means living or life and so these things were alive. 

Some examples of things we can make biomass fuels out of are wood corn. We can also use soy or trash even leftover cooking oil. There's a lot of things that biomass fuel is going to be made out of. Another type of renewable energy is geothermal. This is heat energy that comes from the earth's core. You have to dig down deep to get to areas that have been heated up by magma to access this type of energy. And lastly, we have hydropower in this is the mechanical energy of moving water. The next thing you have to do is fill out this chart with the advantages and disadvantages of different types of energies. Now remember, you can also call advantages benefits. And you can call disadvantages costs. So I'm going to put those up here to remind us. And let's take a look at these different energies and see what they have. 

First up is fossil fuels, a benefit to fossil fuels that you can produce a large amount of electricity in a single location. And it is very easy to find and very cost effective. Some disadvantages to it are that when it's burned because you have to burn it to release the energy inside, it creates air pollution and that is problematic for many reasons, but some things that it does is cause acid rain and contribute to global warming. Another cost or disadvantage to fossil fuels are that mining for coal or drilling for oil can be hazardous to us and our environment. We often hear of mine collapses or oil spills and know that those can be very problematic. The next type of energy is nuclear energy. 

One advantage here is that it produces no air pollution and another is that you only need a very small amount of matter to create an enormous amount of energy. A lot less nuclear fuel will create a lot more power than fossil fuels can. Some cost to nuclear energy are that it creates radioactive waste products, which are dangerous. And the nuclear power plants can be dangerous as well. Next up is solar energy, solar energy is good because it produces no air pollution and the power of the sun is free. Don't have to pay for sunlight. Some disadvantages though is that the initial cost is very expensive. You have to build all those solar panels and create ways to effectively turn sunlight into electricity. And another cost would be that it is only available when the sun is shining. 

So you can only collect energy during the daytime if it's sunny out. You can still store it in battery so you can still have solar energy. Being used at night, but you can only collect it during the daytime. Our next type of energy is biomass fuels. These are good because they can use waste, you can make it out of trash or used cooking oil or things like that. And that saves room in our landfills. And it's made out of things that are commonly available because you could also make it out of corn or other crops that we grow in large amounts. Some costs are that it does still cause a small amount of air pollution. You have to burn it like you do a regular fuel. But it does produce less than fossil fuels. And it can also be expensive, turning that starting material into an actual usable fuel. 

Next up, we have wind energy, wind energy, again, produces no air pollution. And the power of the wind is free again, you don't have to pay for weather, basically. Some costs here. Wind turbines create a lot of noise. You have to build a lot of those windmills in order to create enough energy to be usable. And if you live near that, it's going to be real loud. Also, wind is unpredictable. We know that some spots tend to be windier than others, but we don't know for sure when wind is going to be happening. Next step is geothermal energy, geothermal energy is another one that produces no air pollution. And it is also an unlimited source of cheap energy. Until the earth explodes someday. It costs here is that there are only a few places where magma comes close enough to earth's surface to create enough heat for this to be effective. And the last one in this chart is hydropower or water power. 

This, again, produces no air pollution very nice. And the flow of water can be controlled to produce energy because we can build a dam and a river to allow the water to flow how we want it to and create energy for our homes. Some disadvantages to hydropower are that the dams that we build can negatively affect animals in the habitat since we're building this basically giant wall in a river. It messes with the animals that live there. And also it can be impacted by drought if you have a huge drought like California recently went through and you don't have enough water running through your dam. You're not going to be able to produce any power. The next question asks you to list at least 5 ways that you can help to conserve energy and reduced waste in your own home. So something you yourself could feasibly do. Here are 5 things I came up with. 

One, you can use a reusable water bottle instead of buying the disposable ones at the store. Number two, you could turn off water while you're brushing your teeth instead of leaving it running. If that's not something you already do. Three, you can recycle recycling always good. Make sure you're throwing your trash into the appropriate bins. Number four, you could ride a bike instead of getting a ride in a car if you are traveling a short distance. And number 5, you can turn off the lights when you're leaving a room instead of leaving them on. Now there are so many answers you could have come up to this question. So if you have different ones, that's okay. And if you're unsure, as always, you can ask your teacher. Below that, you had to draw a picture in each box. So you had to come up with at least two. Showing ways that you can reduce waste or conserve energy. 

Here's what I did. I said, use your plastic reusable water bottles like analogy or something else. And I drew this lovely picture. Yes, I hand drew that myself. Thank you. And the other one is you could take your cans plastic glass and throw them into the recycle bin, another beautiful drawing that I definitely did myself. This next question should look familiar. You've seen these graphs before. They are showing us the energy consumption of different areas. This first one shows us Virginia, this second one shows us the United States and the third one is the world, and these are numbers from 2005, and the question asks you to compare and contrast virginians energy consumption to the United States and the world. So you should have written a short paragraph like this and my answer was that Virginia uses more nuclear energy compared to the United States and the rest of the world, which is nice. Virginia uses 35% while the United States uses 8% and the rest of the world only uses 5. 

The leading energy source for Virginia is coal at 45% of our energy. For the United States and the rest of the world, they use oil the most, or remember petroleum is another name for oil. Virginia, overall, also uses the least amount of fossil fuel energy. And in the last question you had to read this passage about wind energy and pick out two costs and two benefits. And so if you read through you would have found these costs, you would see that when terabytes are ruining habitats for these birds that are in the area. And also over 500 73,000 birds are killed by these wind farms each year. So it's a very hazardous situation for the local wildlife. 

Some benefits, however, is that it saves consumers money. And that it generates 20% of electricity needs with no air pollution, which is nice compared to traditional coal, which creates a fair amount of air pollution. And that's it. You've done it. You filled out your last study guide for science for the year, guys. Great job. Make sure you study for the upcoming DoJ. Good luck on it. It is your last science test of the year. Hope it goes well. And I hope that you have a good summer. We teachers are pretty excited ourselves. So we're almost there, guys. But for now, have a good one.