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Science 5: Renewables and Nonrenewables 15 Views


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Description:

Tired of studying energy? Well, no worries, we've taken care of all of that studying for you in this handy dandy review video. But that's as far as we're going. Taking the test for you would kind of defeat the purpose of learning any of this stuff in the first place...

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

[Coop and Dino singing]

00:13

Cramming for a test can be a real drag…

00:16

Staring at your notes...

00:17

Desperately trying not to fall asleep... [Boy falling asleep on chair]

00:19

Wishing you could be doing something... anything other than studying.

00:23

You'd probably rather bathe in a pool full of oatmeal, with a bunch of dirty elephants [Boy in oatmeal pool with elephant]

00:27

while it rains malt vinegar and an angry gym coach yells at you to somehow do pushups in

00:32

the pool...

00:33

That's how badly you don't want to be studying.

00:35

Thankfully, we at Shmoop know how boring it can be, which is why we've prepared this video.

00:40

The Ultimate Review Video: Renewable and Nonrenewable Energy.

00:44

…Well…we suppose this is only helpful if you're studying energy. [Students sitting in classroom]

00:47

If you're cramming for a spelling test, this might not be helpful…

00:50

Just remember "aardvark" has two As.

00:52

Okay, onto the energy stuff!

00:54

And be prepared – we've got a lot of stuff to study and we don't have much time.

00:57

So keep your eyes and ears open, and your brains in full-on information-sponge mode, [Brain appears with information - sponge mode]

01:01

and let's get to it.

01:03

First, let's talk nonrenewables.

01:05

We've got your fossil fuels... [Coop discussing non-renewable energy]

01:07

Coal, crude oil, and natural gas.

01:09

Unlike your Netflix subscriptions, these are all nonrenewable. [Man watching Netflix]

01:12

And by that, we mean they take millions of years to form.

01:15

We'd show you, but we we're on a time crunch.

01:17

Though we probably have time to binge just one Netflix show…

01:20

Ugh, okay, fine. [Boy falls asleep on couch]

01:22

Let's take a look at these…

01:23

Coal is a solid fossil fuel used for electricity and steel production, taken out of the ground

01:28

through mining, and found in the United States in places like Wyoming, West Virginia, Pennsylvania,

01:33

Illinois and Kentucky.

01:34

It's also pretty inexpensive to get out of the ground – though it can be dangerous [A bucket of coal appears]

01:38

to do so.

01:39

Seriously, Santa wears tons of protective gear before he refills his coal supply. [Santa wearing construction helmet]

01:42

Lastly, all of this mining tends to produce a lot of jobs – because if you want to do

01:46

some mining, you need miners!

01:48

Although, definitely not minor miners…that's been illegal for a while now. [Small boy collapses in mine]

01:52

Sorry, kids.

01:53

Next comes crude oil.

01:54

This stuff is dark, chunky, and nowhere near as polite as vegetable oil.

01:58

Crude oil is a liquid fossil fuel, and is used to make gasoline and diesel.

02:02

It's found in pools deep underground, in places like Texas, North Dakota, California, Oklahoma

02:07

and Alaska, and extracted through a process called fracking.

02:11

And what's fracking?

02:12

Well, it's when big machines blow holes in rocks deep beneath the earth, and it's got [Drill drills through rock]

02:15

a whole lot of pros and cons – the major con being that the whole thing can be pretty

02:19

darn “pollutey.”

02:20

But, much like coal, it's pretty cheap to extract. [Man holding briefcase with dollar bill]

02:23

Lastly, we've got natural gas, and it has nothing to do with your dog's farts or anything

02:27

like that.

02:28

This is a gas fossil fuel which is often used for heating and electricity.

02:32

It's found in pools deep beneath the Earth in states like Texas, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, [Pools of natural gas extraction locations appear on map of US]

02:36

Oklahoma and Wyoming, where it's drilled out of the ground.

02:39

Wow.

02:40

That sure was a whole lot of information on the three types of fossil fuels, huh? [Man watching video on fossil fuels]

02:43

So what's our take-away from it all?

02:44

For starters, all three types of fossil fuels are often found in the same places.

02:48

They're also always found deep within the ground.

02:51

These fossil fuels take millions of years to form, and come from the remains of plants [Dino discussing fossil fuels]

02:55

and animals that lived millions of years ago.

02:58

We're also using them at a pace that's way, way, way, way, way faster than they're being [Cars driving by the highway]

03:02

made – which is why we call them nonrenewable.

03:05

In short – we're going to run out one day if we don't figure something else out. [Person fills up car gas tank]

03:08

Which is exactly where alternative energy comes in!

03:12

And we've covered three types of that awesome stuff... [Coop explaining alternative energy]

03:14

Hydropower, solar power, and wind power.

03:17

Now hydropower's the one we use the most.

03:20

It's when we use fast moving water to spin turbines and produce energy, and accounts [A hydro power dam]

03:23

for 6% of the electricity produced in the US.

03:27

Since it relies on moving water, it's usually found near major water sources, like Niagara

03:31

Falls and the Columbia River. [Niagra falls appears]

03:33

It doesn't pollute our beautiful world, and it's totally renewable.

03:35

Those are two very good things.

03:37

The bad news?

03:38

, It's pretty expensive, and it can disrupt animal habitats. [Cons for hydropower]

03:41

For some reason they don't like living near giant power plants.

03:44

Go figure.

03:45

Next up is solar power.

03:47

This is when we use the energy from the sun's rays to create energy, and it's most often [Sun shining]

03:51

used for heating and electricity.

03:53

If you've ever made a solar oven to cook s'mores, you've used solar power to create thermal [Smores inside a solar powered oven]

03:58

energy!

03:59

And you created delicious s'mores! [Man holding plate of smores]

04:01

That's one s'more thing to be happy about.

04:03

Hehe.

04:04

Solar power has some cool pros. [Dino discussing solar power pros]

04:06

It's totally renewable and it doesn't take up much space, but, because nothing is perfect,

04:11

it's also really expensive and it doesn't work in places without a lot of direct sunlight.

04:15

Big surprise, right?

04:16

That's why it's best used in hot and sunny places, like a desert or near the equator. [A lot of solar power units appear]

04:21

As for wind energy, well, that's obviously when we use the wind to spin wind mills and

04:25

create energy. [Wind turbines appear]

04:26

It requires a lot of flat land, so places like Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, California and

04:31

Iowa are big wind energy states.

04:33

If you've ever taken a road trip to Disneyland, you've probably seen them spinning. [Family driving in a car]

04:37

And if you haven't, try to convince your parents that you want to visit where wind energy is

04:40

made, and of course it has nothing to do with wanting to go to Disneyland.

04:44

How dare they assume such things!

04:45

Its pros are that it's renewable, doesn't pollute the air, and is pretty cheap once [Dino discussing wind power pros]

04:49

you've installed the wind turbines.

04:50

The cons are that those turbines are expensive to build, the amount of energy depends on [Coop explaining cons of wind power]

04:54

the amount of wind.

04:55

So if the wind decides to stop blowing…well then there's no more juice.

04:59

And no more juice means no more Netflix. [Man watching Netflix and TV turns off]

05:01

Clearly we can't rely on wind power alone.

05:03

Whew!

05:04

There you have it.

05:05

We crammed together!

05:06

Did you get it all?

05:09

You can always watch this video once more.

05:12

Or twice more.

05:13

Or ten times more! [Man watching video on PC]

05:14

You could even just put it on loop and fall asleep to it!

05:15

Not that we're trying to hypnotize you, or anything…

05:17

You're getting sleepy…verrrry sleepy….you love Shmoop….Shmoop is great…. [Man falling asleep on computer chair]

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