Susan S. Van Biersel
Fossil Fuel Questionnaire
1. What do we mean by “fossil fuel?”
2. Name one (or more) fossil fuel.
3. How are fossil fuels formed? How long does it take?
4. Where are fossil fuels located worldwide?
5. What are fossil fuels used for?
6. What is meant by “renewable” and “nonrenewable in reference to energy sources?
Figure 1: Fossil Fuel Questionnaire
Location of Fossil Fuels Worldwide
COAL:
PETROLEUM:
NATURAL GAS:
Figure 2: Location of Fossil Fuels Worldwide
FOSSIL FUEL MARKETING EXERCISE
Where will I look for the fuel?
What discovery methods will I use?
How will I extract the fuel from its location?
What processing methods will be necessary?
How/for what will my fuel be used?
Who will be my target market?
Figure 3: Fossil fuel marketing exercise.
How to construct a parabolic solar hot dog cooker
You can find poster board at art supply stores, and nuts and bolts at a hardware store. You can generally get old boxes from a grocery store.
Materials for each hot dog cooker:
A 14-inch sheet of aluminum foil, an 11x14-inch piece of poster board, a wire coat hanger, tape, two shoe boxes (one for the collector and one for a stand), a hot dog, and two nuts and two bolts.
1. Make the ends of the parabolic trough out of the cardboard using the pattern shown here. (You will need to enlarge the pattern to match the scale given.)
2. Tape the aluminum foil to the piece of poster board.
3. Curve the poster board and tape it to the two curved ends.
4. Attach the trough to the box frame using nuts and bolts. Make sure the trough can move up and down but will stay in one place.
5. Put holes at either end of the trough focal point.
6. Straighten the wire coat hanger and bend one end to make a handle.
7. Push the coat hanger through the hole on one side. Put the hot dog on the coat hanger, and push the coat hanger through the hole on the other side.
8. Place the solar cooker so the mirrored trough faces the sun.
9. Adjust the trough up and down until the mirrored surface focuses the sun on the hotdog.
10. Cook the hot dog.
What did you see?
How long did it take to cook the hot dog?
Did you have to move the cooker to keep the sun focused on the hotdog?
How parabolic collector works:
A parabolic collector is made up of a trough and a tube running down the center of the trough. The trough is a long rectangular mirror formed in a U-shape. The mirror is tilted toward the sun to focus the sunlight on the tube. The paraboloid shape is perfect for focusing the sunlight on the tube. The tube carries the fluid to be heated. A tracking device keeps the mirrors pointed toward the sun as it moves across the sky.
Parabolic collectors are used mostly to provide hot water for use in industry and sometimes in homes. They are also used to produce electricity.
Figure 4: Solar hot dog cooker (Source: http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/transportation/ index.html)
(image available in print form)
How can you measure wind energy?
Some places have a lot of wind and others don’t. For example, places that are higher or more open usually have stronger winds. Before you bought or built a windmill, you would want to be sure that your location had enough wind. But how can you measure the wind?
An anemometer is used to measure wind energy. You sometimes see them at airports. You are going to make a simple anemometer and measure the wind energy around your school.
Materials for each anemometer:
Pencil, pin, two soda straws, staplers, scissors, cone pattern, paper, tape, bottle with narrow neck, and stopwatch.
Steps [see Figure 5 (Con’t)]
1. Staple the two straws together to make an X. Reinforce with tape.
2. Cut out patterns (~5” circle with a 100º wedge cut out) for the four cones. Color one of these red.
3. Staple one cone pattern to the end of each straw, so that they all face in the same direction.
4. Curve and tape each cone pattern to form a cone.
5. Using a pin or thin nail, pin the center of the X to the pencil eraser.
6. Insert the pencil in a narrow-neck bottle and the anemometer will spin freely.
Measuring Wind Speed
This anemometer cannot not tell the wind speed [in miles per hour for example, unless you calibrate it using known wind speed (e.g. using a scientific anemometer)], but it can give you a relative idea of how fast the wind is blowing around your school.
Using a stopwatch, count the number of times the colored cone spins around in one minute. You are measuring the wind speed in revolutions (turns) per minute. Weather forecasters’ anemometers convert the revolutions per minute into miles per hour (or kilometers per hour). Keep a record of the wind speeds you’re measuring for the next few days.
Measure the wind speed at different times of the day. Is it the same in the morning; the afternoon; the evening? Move your anemometer to another location. Is it windier in other places? Do trees or buildings block the wind?
FIGURE 5: Wind speed project (source: http://www.nrel.gov and http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/projects/anemometer.html).
(image available in print form)