Energy Flashcards
Active collection
The use of devices, such as solar panels, to collect, focus, transport, or store solar energy
Anthracite
The cleanest-burning coal; almost pure carbon
Barrels
The unit used to describe the volume of fossil fuels
Bituminous
The second purest form of coal
Breeder Reactor
A nuclear reactor that generates more fissionable material than it consumes
Crude Oil
The form pertroleum takes when in the ground
Energy
The capacity to do work
Fission
A nuclear reaction in which an atomic nucleus, especially a heavy nucleus such as an isotope of uranium, splits into fragments, usually two fragments of comparable mass, releasing from 100 million to several hundred million electron volts of energy
Fossil Fuel
A hydrocarbon deposit, such a petroleum, coal, or natural gas, derived from living matter of a previous geologic time and used for fuel
First Law of Thermodynamics
The law that states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it can only be transferred and transformed
Fly Ash
A waste product produced by the burning of coal
Half-life
The amount of time it takes for half of a radioactive sample to degrade
HUbbert peak (peak oil)
An influential theory that concerns the long-term rate of conventional oil (and other fossil fuel) extraction and depletion; it predicts that future world oil production will soon reach a peak and then rapidly decline
Hydroelectric Power
Power generated using water
Kinetic Energy
The energy of motion
lignite
The least pure coal
Nuclear Fission
A nuclear reaction in which two nuclei are fused to form one or more different atomic nuclei (and subatomic particles)
Overburden
The rocks and Earth that are removed when strip mining for a commercially valuable mineral resource
Passive Solar Energy Collection
The use of building materials, building placement, and design to passively collect solar energy that can be used to keep a building warm or cool
Pea Oil
Hubbert Oil
Petroleum
Oil; a hydrocarbon that forms as sediments are buried and pressurized
Photovoltaic Cell (PV cell)
A semiconductor device that converts the energy of sunlight into electrical energy
Potential Energy
Energy at rest, or stored energy
Proven Reserve
An estimate of the amount of fossil fuel that can be obtained from reserve
Radiant Energy
Sunlight
Radioactive
Material that underoes radioactive decay, a process by whcih unstable nuclei emit energy over time as particles or photons
Scrubbers
Devices containing alkaline substances that precipitate out much of the sulfur dioxide from industrial plants’ air effluent
Second Law of Thermodynamics
The law that states that the entropy (disorder) of the universe is increasing; one corollary of the Second Law of Thermodynamics is the concept that, in most energy transformations, a significant fraction of energy is lost to the universe as heat
Strip Mining
Involves the removal of Earth’s surface all the way down to the level of the mineral seam
Subbituminous
The third purest form of coal
Underground Mining
Involves the sinking of shafts to reach underground deposits; in this type of mining, networks of tunnels are dug or blasted, and humans enter these tunnels in order to manually retrieve the coal
Wind Farm
A group of modern turbines
