1. Energy What’s really behind it all.

2. What is “energy”?

3. Energy: The ability to do work.

4. Potential energy: Energy possessed by an object by virtue of its position within a field, or internal stress.

5. Kinetic energy: Energy possessed by moving objects.

6. Energy Faceoff! I will present different ways in which we gather energy up on the board. If you think it is harnessed from Potential energy, go to the left side of the room. If you think it is harnessed from Kinetic energy, go to the right side of the room. I will call on people to justify why they made the choice they did. You must be ready to defend your answer!

7. Coal Coal is dug up from the ground and burned. The heat released is used for energy. Last year alone the US burnt 1,600,000,000,000 pounds of coal! (1.6 Trillion!) 39% of the power used in the US last year came from coal alone. Coal use produced over 9.2x10 18 Joules of energy! That’s enough to send a school bus to the moon……. 178,000 times!

8. Nuclear Unstable atoms break apart releasing incredible amounts of energy and heat. The heat is captured and used to power cities. 19% of the US energy usage came from nuclear power. This provided nearly 2.79x10 18 Joules of energy. Enough to power your house for over 25 million years! Only 0.000000003 kgs of nuclear fuel were used. That’s about 3 BILLIONTHS of a paper clip!

9. Oil Oil is pumped from underground and burned for fuel. It’s heat is collected for energy. Last year, the US got 1.47x10 17 Joules from burning oil. That’s enough energy to power all of Colorado for 10 years! 4.62x10 11 kgs were burned. This accounts for 1% of the US energy consumption.

10. Solar Energy from the sun hits special, metal plates which convert a small percentage of the energy from the light into electrical energy. Last year alone the US used 5.87x10 16 Joules of Solar Energy. That’s enough to get a freight train going nearly 1,000,000 mph! 0 kgs of fuel were consumed in this process. None whatsoever!

11. Hydroelectric Water flows through dams and the energy from its motion is turned into electrical energy through objects called turbines. Last year 8.82x10 17 Joules of energy were made from hydroelectric power plants. That’s enough to run the entire school for 150 million years! This accounts for only 6% of the energy used by the US alone just last year. 0 kgs of fuel were consumed in this process. Not a single atom!

12. Natural Gas Methane (Natural Gas) is pulled from pockets in the ground and burned for energy. RTD busses run off of this fuel. We burned enough Natural Gas this year to generate 3.97x10 18 Joules of energy. 27% of the energy for the US came from this fuel. This is 24,000 times more energy than both nukes used in WWII. In one year, nearly 322 Billion kgs of fuel were burned.

13. Biomatter Decomposable trash is burned or refined into fuel. Bio-diesel cars run off of ethanol made from corn and other grown products. Bio-matter accounted for 1.7% of the energy consumed by the US last year. This equates to nearly 2.5x10 17 Joules of energy. Enough to power nearly 50 million bolts of lightning. 8.6 billion kgs of fuel were burned in this process.

14. Geothermal Heat from the earth’s core is used to boil water to steam, which spins turbines for energy. Last year, 5.88x10 16 Joules of energy were produced from this source. That’s enough energy to power 2,041 Iron Man suits for an hour. This contributed to only 0.4% of the US energy usage in 2014. In this process, 0 kgs of fuel were used. None at all.

15. Wind Power Wind spins massive fan turbines in large fields called “wind farms”. Last year, wind farms produced 6.47x10 17 Joules of energy. That’s enough energy to launch the space shuttle over 1.6 million times. This accounted for 4.4% of the country’s energy usage. 0 kgs of fuel were used. Zip.

16. Tide/Current Power The movement of ocean water past turbines generates electrical energy. This power source could possibly produce 2.52x10 18 Joules every year. That’s potentially enough to power the entire internet………..forever. It consumes 0 kgs of fuel. Zilch.

17. Where does our energy come from?

18. The Sun!

19. How do we calculate energy?

20. Exit Ticket Explain the difference between Kinetic energy and Potential energy