All flashcards
Flashcard 1: What is natural gas commonly used for in homes and buildings?
Answer: Heating, cooking, and generating electricity. Natural gas burns cleanly for these common household and power needs.
Flashcard 2: What is petroleum (oil) mainly used for in human energy use?
Answer: Making gasoline, diesel, and other transportation fuels. Oil is refined into various fuels that power most vehicles.
Flashcard 3: What is the definition of nonrenewable energy?
Answer: Energy from sources that take very long to replace. These sources formed over millions of years and can't be quickly replaced.
Flashcard 4: What is the definition of renewable energy?
Answer: Energy from sources that are naturally replaced quickly. These sources replenish naturally within a human lifetime.
Flashcard 5: What is the definition of a natural resource used for energy?
Answer: A material from nature that people use to produce energy. Natural resources provide raw materials that can be converted into usable energy.
Flashcard 6: What is the definition of a fuel?
Answer: A material that can be burned or used to release usable energy. Fuels store chemical energy that's released through combustion or other processes.
Flashcard 7: Which energy source is a fossil fuel formed from ancient plants and animals?
Answer: Fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas). These formed over millions of years from decomposed organisms.
Flashcard 8: What is coal mainly used for in human energy use?
Answer: Generating electricity and providing industrial heat. Coal is burned in power plants to produce steam that drives turbines.
Flashcard 9: Which action best conserves energy at home: leaving lights on or turning them off?
Answer: Turning them off when not needed. Unnecessary lights waste electricity that required resources to generate.
Flashcard 10: Identify the device that turns fuel energy into motion in most cars.
Answer: An engine. Engines convert chemical energy in fuel to mechanical energy.
Flashcard 11: What is a pollutant that can be released when fossil fuels are burned?
Answer: Air pollution such as smoke and gases (for example, carbon dioxide). Burning releases harmful substances that contaminate the atmosphere.
Flashcard 12: Which energy source usually produces the least air pollution while generating electricity: coal or wind?
Answer: Wind. Wind turbines generate electricity without combustion or emissions.
Flashcard 13: Which option is renewable: coal, oil, wind, or natural gas?
Answer: Wind. Wind constantly renews as the sun heats Earth's atmosphere unevenly.
Flashcard 14: Which option is nonrenewable: sunlight, wind, coal, or moving water?
Answer: Coal. Coal formed from ancient plants over millions of years and can't be replaced.
Flashcard 15: What is biomass as an energy resource?
Answer: Plant or animal material used as fuel (for example, wood). Living or recently living organisms contain stored chemical energy.
Flashcard 16: What is solar energy, and what natural resource provides it?
Answer: Energy from sunlight; the natural resource is the Sun’s light. Solar panels convert the Sun's radiation into electricity.
Flashcard 17: What is wind energy, and what natural resource provides it?
Answer: Energy from moving air; the natural resource is wind. Wind turbines capture kinetic energy from moving air masses.
Flashcard 18: What is hydropower, and what natural resource provides it?
Answer: Electricity from moving water; the resource is flowing water. Dams harness the kinetic energy of falling or flowing water.
Flashcard 19: What is geothermal energy, and what natural resource provides it?
Answer: Energy from Earth’s internal heat; the resource is hot rocks/steam. Underground heat from Earth's core provides steam for power generation.
Flashcard 20: What does it mean to conserve energy?
Answer: To use less energy by reducing waste. Conservation prevents wasting limited energy resources.
Flashcard 21: Which structure is often built to help generate hydropower electricity?
Answer: A dam. Dams control water flow to maximize energy generation.
Flashcard 22: Which option is an example of biomass fuel: wood, coal, or natural gas?
Answer: Wood. Wood is plant biomass; coal is fossilized.
Flashcard 23: What natural resource provides solar energy?
Answer: Sunlight from the Sun. The Sun provides continuous light energy to Earth.
Flashcard 24: What device changes sunlight into electricity for people to use?
Answer: Solar panel (photovoltaic cell). Converts light photons into electrical current.
Flashcard 25: What natural resource makes wind energy possible?
Answer: Moving air (wind). Wind is created by uneven heating of Earth's surface.
Flashcard 26: What machine is commonly used to turn wind energy into electricity?
Answer: Wind turbine. Blades spin to convert kinetic energy to electricity.
Flashcard 27: What natural resource is used for hydropower (water power)?
Answer: Moving water in rivers or falling water at dams. Water's kinetic energy drives turbines for power.
Flashcard 28: What is the definition of electricity as a form of energy people use?
Answer: Energy from moving electric charges used to power devices. Electrons flow through conductors to transfer energy.
Flashcard 29: Identify the fuel used in most cars and trucks: gasoline, wind, or sunlight.
Answer: Gasoline. Gasoline is a petroleum-based liquid fuel.
Flashcard 30: Which option best describes conserving energy: using less energy or using more energy?
Answer: Using less energy. Conservation reduces waste and preserves resources.