LESSON 1 Energy: An Overview

Guiding Question: What is energy and how is it used?

Define energy and differentiate between kinetic and
potential energy.
Identify different forms of energy.
Describe how human society uses energy resources.
Reading Strategy As you read about forms of energy,
make a two-column table. List the forms of energy in the left
column. In the right column, take notes about each form of
energy.
Vocabulary energy, kinetic energy, potential energy,
combustion, energy efficiency, renewable energy,
nonrenewable energy, electricity

Kitty Hawk, December 17, 1903. On a windswept beach in North

17.1 Lesson Plan Preview
Differentiated Instruction
Support struggling students by
giving them a visual example of
potential and kinetic energy.
Inquiry Students observe how
various devices convert energy
from one form to another.
Real World Students relate
energy use to the many electri-
cal devices in their daily lives.
Carolina, a small, fragile airplane, piloted by Orville Wright, rose into the
air. As his brother Wilbur held his breath, Orville managed to keep the
tiny airplane aloft for 12 seconds, flying 36 meters (40 yards) across the
sand. With that short flight, the Wright brothers forever changed the way
people travel and transport materials. Today huge jets carry passengers
and cargoes across continents and oceans.
The Wright brothers tiny plane and modern jets are different in many
ways, but they share some characteristics. For one thing, both need fuel to
fly, and the fuel they use comes from petroleum. Todays jet is much big-
ger, and travels much faster and farther, than the first airplane. Therefore,
a jet uses a lot more fuel than the plane that took to the air at Kitty Hawk.

17.1 Resources
In Your Neighborhood Activity, Home
Energy Use Lesson 17.1 Worksheets FIGURE 1 First Flight Powered by gasoline, the Wright
Lesson 17.1 Assessment Chapter 17 brothers plane rises above the beach at Kitty Hawk.
Overview Presentation

516 Lesson 1
 (a)
(b)

What Is Energy? FIGURE 2 Potential and Kinetic

Energy (a) At the top of the hill, the
Energy, which is the ability to do work, can be classified as skier has potential energy. (b) As she
zooms downward, she has kinetic
either kinetic or potential.
energy.

Fuel supplies airplanes, big and small, with energy. Energy is the ability GUIDING QUESTION
to do work or cause a change. Airplanes do work when they move from
one place to another. Energy from the sun changes Earth by warming the FOCUS Start a cluster diagram on
the board by writing word energy
atmosphere. The suns energy also causes a change when, in photosyn- and circling it. Have students come
thesis, it powers chemical reactions in which carbon dioxide and water forward to add words and phrases
combine to form food molecules. Energy ran the printing presses that that describe energy or ways that
printed this book, and energy enables you to turn these pages. And with- energy is used. After students read
the lesson, have them suggest more
out energy, you couldnt read the words in this paragraph.
words and phrases to add to the
Energy is necessary to change the position, composition, or tempera- diagram.
ture of something. Most forms of energy fall into one of two categories
kinetic energy or potential energy.

Kinetic Energy On a bright winter day, a skier zooms down a hill. The
fast-moving skier has kinetic energy. Kinetic energy is the energy that an
object has due to its motion. A whizzing baseball, a train speeding down
a track, a jumping frog, and a wave crashing on a beach all have kinetic
energy. You can think of kinetic energy as energy in action.

Potential Energy Before the skier took off, she stood at the top of the
hill. At that time, before she started moving, she had potential energy,
because objects that are high up tend to go downward. Potential energy
is energy that an object has because of its position or shape. In contrast
to kinetic energy, potential energy is energy that is stored. A stretched
rubber band has potential energy. When you release the rubber band, it
jumps away from your hand. The rubber band now has kinetic energy
because it is moving. ANSWERS

Reading What is energy? Reading Checkpoint The ability to

Checkpoint do work or cause a change

Nonrenewable Energy 517

FIGURE 3 Different Forms of Energy
As the hikers move, they use
mechanical energy. Chemical energy
from food powers their muscles.
ANSWERS
Reading Checkpoint A compressed
spring has mechanical energy that is
potential.
518 Lesson 1
Forms of Energy
Forms of energy include mechanical energy, electrical energy,
thermal energy, electromagnetic energy, chemical energy, and
nuclear energy.
Its a warm, sunny Saturday, so you and a few friends decide to hike to the
top of a hill. You call your parents on your cell phone to let them know
what your plans are. Then you pick up your backpack and start climbing.
When you get to the hilltop, you and your friends break for lunch, and
you eat the sandwich that you packed. On your hike and the lunch break
that followed, you used several kinds of energy. Energy comes in many
forms, and each of these forms can be converted into other forms.
Mechanical Energy The motions involved in picking up your back-
pack and hiking involve mechanical energy. Mechanical energy is associ-
ated with the motion and position of an object. A moving baseball has
mechanical energy that is kinetic. So do a speeding bike and a car moving
down a street. A compressed spring has mechanical energy that is poten-
tial. When you release the spring, the stored energy becomes kinetic, and
the spring moves.
Electrical Energy A cell phone uses electrical energy to send mes-
sages. Electrical energy is energy associated with electric charges.
Electrical energy stored in a cell phones battery is potential energy. When
you use the phone to make a call, the energy is kinetic. Electrical energy
powers many things you use, such as light bulbs, computers, DVD play-
ers, and hair dryers.
Thermal Energy All materials are composed of tiny particles called
atoms and molecules. These particles are moving all the time. Thermal
energy is the kinetic energy of all the atoms and molecules in an object.
The more energy the atoms and molecules have, the faster they move.
If the particles in an object start to move faster, the object will become
warmer. The particles in hot volcanic lava move very fast.
Reading What kind of energy does a compressed spring have?
Checkpoint
Electromagnetic Energy When the sun warms you or you cook
food in a microwave oven, you are experiencing or using electromagnetic
energy. Electromagnetic energy travels through space in the form of waves.
Visible light is a type of electromagnetic energy, as are radio waves and
ultraviolet radiation.

Chemical Energy The food you and your friends eat while hiking
provides your bodies with chemical energy. Food, such as corn, is made
of molecules, and chemical energy is stored in the bonds that hold the
atoms together in molecules. When bonds in molecules break, energy
may be released. Chemical energy is potential energy, because it is stored
in chemical bonds. When you move your legs and arms during hik-
ing, your body converts chemical energy stored in food into mechanical
energy. Like food, fossil fuels contain energy stored in the molecules of
chemical compounds.

Nuclear Energy Chemical energy involves bonds between atoms.

Nuclear energy, in contrast, involves forces within atoms. The nucleus is
the central part of an atom. The forces that hold nuclear particles together
in the nucleus can store a huge amount of potential energy. You will learn
more about nuclear energy later in this chapter.

Energy Conversion Energy can be converted, or changed, from

one form to another. For example, when you turn on an electric fan,
the blades of the fan turn around. In the fans motor, electrical energy
has been converted to mechanical energy. The mechanical energy of the
moving blades produces cooling breezes. When fireworks explode in the
night sky, chemical energy has been converted to thermal energy and
electromagnetic energy. The electromagnetic energy takes the form of the
brightly colored light displays and patterns we associate with fireworks.
Combustion Combustion is another example
of energy conversion. Combustion is the process
in which a fuel burns because it combines rapidly
with oxygen. Chemical energy stored in the fuel is
converted to thermal and electromagnetic energy.
You feel the thermal energy as heat and see the
electromagnetic energy as light.
A Combustion Equation Many substances can
serve as fuels. The fuels you are most familiar with
are wood and fossil fuels such as coal and oil. The
chemical equation for the combustion of natural
gas, a fossil fuel composed mostly of methane
(CH4), is shown below.

CH4 + 2O2 CO2 + 2H2O

The principal products of the combustion of
methaneand of other fossil fuelsare carbon
dioxide and water. Both carbon dioxide and water
vapor are greenhouse gases.

Nonrenewable Energy 519

 Energy Efficiency Airplanes, cars, and fans all require energy to do
the jobs they are designed to perform. However, not all the energy sup-
plied is used to do the work for which it is intended. In a car, for example,
some of the energy supplied by the fuel is converted to heat rather than
motion. Energy efficiency is an expression of how much of the energy
put into a system actually does useful work. Energy efficiency is usually
expressed as a percentage. For example, if an automobile has an energy
efficiency of 15 percent, only 15 percent of the energy provided by the
fuel actually moves the car forward.

Sources and Uses of Energy

FIGURE 4 Renewable Energy
Wind holds the kite aloft. Wind is
a renewable energy resource.
Human society uses renewable and nonrenewable energy
resources in industry, transportation, commerce, and residences.
Highly industrialized nations such as the United States use an enormous
amount of energy. Where does that energy come from, and how is the
energy used?

Renewable and Nonrenewable Energy Energy resources can be

ANSWERS
Quick Lab
1. The bulb did not light because
there was no source of energy.
2. The light came on; the batteries
supplied energy.
3. Electrical energy
4. Both the battery and box are used
for storage. The battery stores
energy; the box stores bats for
future use.
divided into two broad categories: renewable energy and nonrenewable
energy. Sources of renewable energy are nearly always available some-
where on Earths surface, or they are replaced in a relatively short time.
Renewable energy resources include the sun, wind, moving water, wood,
and heat that comes from deep within Earth. Sources of nonrenewable
energy, in contrast, cannot be replaced. Nonrenewable energy resources
include fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, and nuclear energy.
Once these resources are used up, they are gone forever.
All the renewable and nonrenewable energy resources identified
above are primary energy resources. Primary energy resources are found
in nature. Electricity, which is energy made available by the flow of an
electric charge, is considered a secondary source of energy, because it must
be produced using a primary energy resource. For example, electricity can
be produced by burning coal. Electricity is useful because it can be trans-
ferred over long distances and used in many ways.

Wheres the Energy? 2. Relate Cause and Effect After you

1 Obtain
2 3 a flashlight
4 5 and 6 remove
7 8 the
9 batteries. inserted the batteries into the flashlight,
1 2 Turn
3 the
4 flashlights
5 6 7switch8 on.
9 Observe what happens. what happened when you turned the
1 2 3 Now
4 put
5 the
6 batteries
7 8 back9 in the flashlight, and turn the switch on? Why?
flashlight on. Observe what happens now. 3. Apply Concepts What form of energy
2 3 4 Leave
5 6 the flashlight
7 8 9turned on. After a few minutes, put your lights a flashlight bulb?
hand close to the bulb of the flashlight. What do you feel? 4. Use Analogies How is a flashlight battery
Analyze and Conclude like a box in which you put baseball bats
1. Infer When the flashlight did not have batteries, what hap- when they are not being used?
pened when you switched it on? Why did this happen?

520 Lesson 1
 Share of Energy Consumed by
Major Sectors of the Economy, 2008

Commercial
19% Industrial
31%

Residential
22%
Transportation
28%

Source: Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy

Review 2008.

How Energy Is Used The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) identi- FIGURE 5 How We Use Energy The
graph shows the different ways that
fies four general ways that energy is used in the United States. As the energy is used in the United States
graph in Figure 5 shows, energy is used in industry, transportation, for industry, transportation, homes,
residences, and commerce. In industry, energy is used to accomplish jobs and commerce. Notice that industry
such as constructing buildings and making products. Transportation uses the highest percentage of energy.
vehicles that use energy include cars and trucks, of course, and also boats, ANSWERS
airplanes, trains, and even motorcycles. Residencesincluding your Lesson 1 Assessment
apartment or houseuse electricity to run appliances, light bulbs, and 1. Kinetic energy is the energy that
electronic devices. Commercial uses occur in places where business is an object has because of its mo-
conducted, such as offices, supermarkets, and shopping malls. tion, while potential energy is
related to an objects position or
Worldwide Patterns of Energy Use Developed nations generally shape. Sample examples: kinetic
energya basketball bouncing;
use far more energy than do developing nations. Per person, nations with potential energya basketball
the most industry use up to 100 times more energy than do nations with held above the floor.
little industry. The United States has only 4.5 percent of the worlds popu- 2. Energy is released when the bonds
lation; however, it consumes 21.1 percent of the worlds energy. within the carbohydrate molecules
Developed and developing nations also tend to use energy differently. are broken down.
Developed nations use about two thirds of their energy on transportation 3. Because it is not found in nature; it
must be produced using a primary
and industry. In contrast, developing nations use most of their energy to energy source, such as coal
provide the basic necessities of life. Such activities include farming, pre- 4. The energy in fossil fuels is poten-
paring food, and heating homes. tial, because it is stored energy.

1
1. Compare and Contrast Contrast kinetic energy
and potential energy. Give an example of each.
2. Relate Cause and Effect Carbohydrate molecules
are found in foods. These carbohydrate molecules
provide your body with energy. How does this
happen?
3. Explain Why is electricity considered a secondary
source of energy?
4. Explore the BIGQUESTION Is the energy con-
tained in fossil fuels potential energy or kinetic
energy? Explain your answer.

Nonrenewable Energy 521