Category Science

What are various less quoted forms of energy?

In some parts of the world, energy comes roaring up out of the ground or rolling across the ocean – for free!

One form of this energy is gathered from boiling water and steam. The rocks deep below the surface of the earth are very hot, sometimes as hot as 600 °C. This is about five times hotter than boiling water. If underground water trickles into these hot rocks, it quickly turns into steam. The steam takes up about 4,000 times more room than the water. The steam forces its way into cracks in the rocks and sometimes finds its way to the surface. The steam can be piped into an electricity-making machine called a turbine. The steam turns wheels in the turbine, which helps a generator to make electricity.

Movement in the oceans also releases huge amounts of energy. People have invented several ways to use this energy. One way uses the power of the rising and falling tides. To capture this energy, a dam is built across the opening to a bay. At high tide, the dam is closed to hold water in the bay. At low tide, the water can be released. The flowing water spins wheels inside a turbine to help make electricity.

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What is Electrical Energy?

Snorkel and Scorch are terribly sad. For 200 years they worked as palace dragons. They carried wood for fires, huffed flames into fireplaces, and lit candles in the palace halls. But now they are out of work. It is not their fault. Things at the palace have changed. Now the royal halls are lit with light bulbs, and the rooms are heated with a boiler. There is even a brand-new stove in the kitchen.

Electricity is doing the work that Snorkel and Scorch used to do. Electricity makes one kind of energy. When electricity flows through a wire, much as water flows through a hose, it is called an electric current. An electric current can do the same kind of work a fuel can do. It can make light and heat. And it can make the push or pull that runs all kinds of machines.

So Snorkel and Scorch do not have to carry wood, light fires, or keep the candles burning any more. All they have to do is push the switches that turn the electric current on and off. Life will be much easier from now on, and Snorkel and Scorch will have enough free time to help out at palace barbecues.

The word electricity comes from the Greek word elektron, which means “amber”. Amber is a yellow stone that gets an electric charge when it is rubbed with a cloth.

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What exactly is nuclear energy?

All things – even you – are made up of billions and billions of “bits” that are smaller than anything you can imagine. These “bits” are called atoms. Atoms are the tiniest parts that something can be broken into and still be the same stuff. For example, one atom of gold is the tiniest bit of gold possible.

Special machines can split certain kinds of atoms into even smaller parts. When atoms split, they give off energy. The part of the atom that splits is called the nucleus, so the energy is called nuclear energy.

The energy given off by atoms when they are split is in the form of heat. So a machine that splits atoms can be used the same way a fuel-burning engine is used. The machine makes heat. The heat can be used to run generators that make electricity and to run other machines, too.

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What is Chemical Energy?

You have seen candles burning. An orange flame dances around the wick, while the wax melts underneath and drips down. The candle gets shorter as the wax melts.

The candle wax has a kind of stored-up energy. It is a fuel. A fuel is something that is burned to make light, heat, or a push that makes things move. The coal, oil, and gas used to heat homes and other buildings and to cook food are fuels. The petrol in a car and the wood in a fireplace are fuels, too.

The same thing happens to every kind of fuel when it burns. When it starts burning, the heat makes it break down and change to other things, such as ashes. As the fuel breaks down, it gives off energy. Some of the energy is light, and some is heat.

When petrol is burned in a car engine, the heat energy makes the engine push. The push from the engine makes the car run.

The energy stored in a fuel is called chemical energy.

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How does wind energy work?

A push from the wind can make a kite fly. It can make a sailing boat speed across the water. It can even light lamps and pump water.

People use wind energy to pump water and make electricity for their homes and other buildings. They do it with the help of a machine called a windmill. Windmills come in different shapes and sizes, but they are all alike in some ways.

They are tall enough to catch the strong winds that blow high above the ground. They also have a wheel, which is the part that spins. The wheel has paddles, sails, or blades for the wind to push against. When the wind blows, the wheel spins. This makes a push that runs a water pump or an electricity-making machine called a generator.

Of course, the wind doesn’t always blow, so the windmill doesn’t always run. But water pumped by the windmill can be stored in tanks. And electricity made when the windmill runs can be stored in batteries. Until the windmill goes back to work, people can use stored-up water and stored-up electricity in their homes. There are even “wind farms”, where many windmills make electricity for whole communities.

Picture Credit : Google

What is Solar Energy and how does it work?

Someday you may live in a house that keeps itself warm with a tankful of “sunshine”. The heat for such a house comes from solar energy, or energy from the sun.

The sun’s energy gives power to everything on the earth. Using the sun’s energy, plants make food for animals and people.

A house that uses the sun’s energy is a solar house – a “sunshine house”. A solar house has special collectors to capture the sun’s heat. Usually the collectors are on the roof or on the sunniest side of the house.

How is the sun’s heat stored? In one kind of solar house, water or another liquid is pumped through collectors on sunny days to pick up heat. Next, the hot water is pumped to a huge tank filled with sand or gravel. Bit by bit, it heats the whole tank. Sand or gravel can hold heat longer than water does, so heat stays in the tank long after the sun goes down.

When the house is chilly, you just press a button that turns on a fan beside the tank. The fan pulls the cool air into the hot tank. When the air gets warm, it blows out of the tank and through the house. So the house gets warm, and you do, too – with a tankful of stored-up heat from the sun.

Picture Credit : Google