Behind+the+Scenes

The Law of Conservation of Energy The Law of Conservation of Energy is a law of physics that states that the total amount of energy in an isolated system remains constant over item. This means that the energy may change location within the system, however, it can not be created or destroyed. Also, the sum of the energy in the system will always be constant. Consequently, this allows the energy to be converted to another form, as long as the sum remains the same throughout the procedure.The energy forms include: kinetic, potential, heat, chemical, sound, light, and electric. Examples of these conversions:

The picture below represents the constant energy within the system

Ways that this is used in energy resources: Most energy sources have a base material that the energy derives from. For example, wood can be burned to be converted into heat energy. The amount of energy that is put into the wood is the same amount of heat energy that the wood creates. Also, wind energy needs to be converted into electricity. The wind blows the turbines and in return creates electricity. The amount of electricity that is created is equal to the amount of energy exerted by the wind on the turbine. Finally, nuclear power plants derive electricity from nuclear energy. This conversion depends on the amount of energy being taken from the nuclear energy, thus holding true to the law of conservation of energy.

Flow of Energy:

Food Chain- The food chain begins with the sun as the main provider that gives energy to everything on the earth. It passes its energy to other living organisms through radiation. The producers are the living green plants, or autotrophs.They capture the energy that is released from the sun and convert it into food. Other living organisms then feed off of the energy from these green plants. Living organisms depend on the oxygen produced from the photosynthesis of plants and they depend on the green plants for food as well. Consumers, or heterotrophs, are the organisms that eat other living organisms. The consumer organisms include animals, bacteria, and fungus. Herbivores are the primary consumers, and they feed on both plants and fungus, whereas carnivores are secondary consumers and they feed on other animals or prey. Omnivores are another secondary consumer and they feed on both animals and plants. A snail would be a herbivore, a hawk would be an omnivore, and a fox would be a carnivore. Detritivores are also heterotrophs, but they feed on dead plants and animals to get their nutrients. An example of a detritivore would be an earthworm. Detritivores are a kind of decomposer. Decomposers break down dead plants and animals. They are also considered heterotrophs and they get their food from these other kinds of dead plants and animals. Organisms such as bacteria, fungus, and earthworms are examples of decomposer organisms. The energy flow of the food chain shows that everything bases its energy off of the sun and it works down the chain through all of the producers and consumers until it reaches the decomposers, which are essentially involved in every other part of the chain. The food chain dictates the availability of energy resources because it can be reused. For example the food chain affects biomass because without the decomposed trees or animals produced from the food chain, biomass wouldn't be possible. Also oil energy couldn't be harnessed without the food chain because that means that there wouldn't be decomposed animals to create oil. Finally, without the food chain, there wouldn't be wood energy because the sun is what helps plants to grow to produce trees to create the wood used in wood energy.





Water Cycle Children start learning about the water cycle in elementary school; however, that doesn’t mean it’s as simple as it seems to be. The water cycle is a web of intricacies that are interlaced with each other. The easiest place to start tracing the lines is in the oceans. As the sun beats down on the water, the molecules evaporate into the air, until they get to a higher point in the atmosphere and condense, forming any of the many forms of clouds. There it collects until the clouds become too heavy and the water is released in the form of snow, sleet, rain, etc., in a process called sublimation. From here, some water is soaked up by the ground and slowly discharged back into large bodies of water (this is usually called infiltration), while the rest of the water runs off surfaces of the earth into smaller bodies of water or absorbed by plants for nutrition. Then the water evaporates into vapor again, and the cycle repeats. The water cycle helps to circulate the earth’s biogeochemicals, like phosphorus, carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen. Without the water cycle, the earth would be in some serious trouble as far as alternative energy sources are concerned. How much solar energy can be collected when clouds cover the sky, making it impossible for sunlight to stream through? None, so areas with high precipitation will never be used for creating solar energy. Storms certainly also affect the amount of wind energy collected. When a good thunderstorm rattles across the Great Plains, the wind turbines go crazy, spinning more than a kindergartener’s head after getting off a roundabout. Storms also create bigger waves and more pronounced tides, which contribute to the generation of tidal energy by making more powerful bursts of water.

Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics is defined as the science deals with the relations between heat and mechanical work (energy), and the process of one becoming the other. Various variables are involved in process such as temperature, volume and pressure. There are four different rules to thermodynamics. There are the three initial laws and Zeroth’s law.

The first law of thermodynamics, also known as the conservation of energy, states that the total amount of energy in the universe is constant. That means that all the energy that is used needs to end up somewhere, either in its original form or in another form. The second law states that the disorder in the universe is always increasing. This means that as the disorder increases energy is transformed into less useable forms. That makes the efficiency of any of any process less than 100%. The third law states that all molecular movement stops at the temperature absolute zero, 0 Kelvin (-273°C). Temperature is a measure of molecular movement, so it cannot be lower than absolute zero. Zeroth law states that when two objects, or systems, are in thermal equilibrium with each other, the heat from one object to the other is the same as the second object to the first.

Because of thermodynamics one always knows that there is energy to be used in the universe. There may be a day when coal and other substances used for energy may not be available for the world, but thermodynamics explains that there will always be another source of energy out there ready to be used. A great example of that would be wind because it is renewable. Water is another example of thermodynamics that shows that the efficiency of using it may not be 100%. Water can be very polluted especially if it is taken from the ocean. The way hot tea and cold milk can mix into the same temperature, so can the sun and water. Water will just turn into vapor continuing the water cycle. Thus, thermodynamics can continues a constant cycle of energy.

