History of Energy – Reading Guide

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ACTIVITIES OF HUMAN LIFE IS PRODUCING AND CONSUMING ENERGY.

HUMANS ARE FORCED TO RELY ON CHEMICAL ENERGY, FROM FOOD THAT PRODUCES KINETIC MECHANICAL ENERGY WHICH PROVIDES THE ENERGY OF WORKING MUSCLES. OVER THOUSAND OF YEARS, HUMAN EFFORTS HAVE FOCUSED PRIMARILY ON THE EXTRACTION, PROCESSINGS, AND EXCHANGE AND MARKETING OF FOOD AS WELL AS FOSSIL FUELS AND ORGANICS.

KEY WORDS

VAST: OF VERY EXTENT OF QUANTITY, VERY IMMENSEINTELLECT: THE FACULITY OF REASONING.INEXTRICABLY: IMPOSSIBLE TO DISENTANGLE OR SEPARATE.

Introduction

Main Ideas• Energy was used by the earliest of people• Energy is made of all different types of things• Energy is used for all different purposes• Energy=Progress=Civilization

Introduction

Key WordsCivilization- The most advanced stage of human social development and organization. Caloric- Of or relating to heatKinetic- Energy that a body possesses by virtue of being in motion.

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Water Power

Age of Water Power• Before the modern era people had to rely on their own

abilities and primitive tools like axes, picks, plows, harnesses, wagons and carriages, water wheels, wind mills, and sailing

ships.

• By the end of the Roman Era, water wheels powered mills to crush grain, full cloth, tan leather, smelt and shape iron, saw

wood, etc...

• During the middle ages, hydraulics engineers mounted mills on boats and bridges and from these evolved hydro power

dams to store and develop water pressure and to divert water into power canals and thence on to wheels.

Steam Power

Steam Energy• Steam Energy is one of the most reliable energy

sources around. • In France and in the United States Steam energy was

more popular than most other resources.• 1876, in Philadelphia the first example of Steam

energy was shown to the public. Key Words:Synergistic Relationships - when multiple things work together to accomplish something

Inflexibility - cant bend

Corliss Steam Engine - a machine that changed the steam revolution.

Age of Steam PowerAndrea and Marc

The modern era began with the eighteenth century introduction of steam power to English coal mines by Thomas Savery and Thomas Newcomen.

During nineteenth century, steam improved enormously. America business imported steam power from England, and by the 1840s it began competing successfully with water-powered manufactures.

England and European countries turned to coal for steam fuel before 1800, and by the mid-nineteenth century Appalachian coal succeeded wood as steam fuel in the eastern United States

Appalachian: A mountain in eastern North America

Manufactures: the making of articles on a large scale using machinery

Succeeded: achieve the desired aim or result:

Electrical Power

Age of Electricity - Important Ideas

By the early twentieth century, electricity had become the favored method for transmitting energy, but applying it for human uses depended on many scientists and technicians working together.

The production of electricity with primary batteries and eventually with electromagnetic induction, the transmission of electricity through copper wires, and the development of electric motors ultimately revolutionized the transmission of power.

Edison helped the widespread use of the lamp.

Key words Electromagnetic induction-when an

electromagnetic field causes molecules in another object to flow

Electric power transmission - the bulk transfer of electrical energy, from generating power plants to electrical substations located near demand centers.

Ploy phase system - a means of distributing alternating-current electrical power

The Electrical Age 1) In the 19th and 20th centuries, there was a demand for electricity. People ditched the waterwheels, windmills and drive shafts and gave way to electrically powered machinery.

2) Thomas Edison was one of the most important contributors to electric technology. He created a direct current (DC) power system that became the standard for distributed electricity.

3) By the early 20th century, electricity was the favored method for transmitting energy. Humans applied it for use which depended on many scientist and technicians.

Key Words:Inanimate – energy that is dead; showing no signs of life.

Hydropower – also known as water power is power derived from the energy of falling water.

Energy – the ability to do work.

Nuclear Power

Nuclear age • A search for an alternative to fossil- fuel

electric-power generation led many people people to the atom

• As the world went to war in the 1940s, Fermi and other physicists in Europe and America came to understand that a uranium atom split by a neutron would cause a self-perpetuating chain reaction of atom splitting that would release enormous energy

• During the 1950s, the AEC worked with public utilities such a pacific Gas and Electric company in California to develop electric power generation using nuclear fission.

Key Words:• Ubiquitous : present, found every

where

• Energy matrix : the combination of all the energy sources in the country

• Steam-turbine-A turbine in which a high-velocity jet of steam rotates a bladed disk or drum.

The Nuclear AgeMain Ideas

-Hydroelectricity was the most important part in the modern

energy matrix- Nuclear reaction in which a

heavy nucleus splits or on impact with another particle with the

release of energy.--Nuclear energy emerged as on of the most touted solutions to

the world’s energy problem.

Key Words

- ubiquitous, present, appearing everywhere

-energy matrix, all the ways we use energy in our country

-electricity, a form of energy resulting from the resistance of changed particles such as electron or protons.