Alternative to Fossil Fuels and Their Relative Advantages and Disadvantages
Energy Conversion; Fossil Fuels; Attractive Sources of Energy;
Alternative to Fossil Fuels and Their Relative Advantages and Disadvantages
Introduction
Energy comes in different forms and different terms distinguished one form from another. Potential energy is called the energy that possessed by an object due to its position. Kinetic energy is called the energy possessed by an object due to its motion. Energy is neither created nor destroyed; it only converted from one form to another.
Conversion energy from one form to another
Potential energy can be converted into kinetic energy and vice versa. The classic example of this intra-conversion is a pendulum. Throughout a swing of a pendulum the total amount of energy (potential plus kinetic) is constant. When the pendulum reaches its highest point at the end of the movement, all its energy becomes potential energy. As it begins, a downward swing gains kinetic energy and loses potential energy. At the lowest point of its trajectory all its energy is converted into kinetic energy. As its proceeds to swing to its highest point it loses kinetic energy and gains potential energy. At the highest point all of its energy is once again a potential energy.
All of the different forms of energy are intro-convertible. For example: electrical energy is converted into light energy in the bulb, into mechanical energy in the washing machines, and into thermal energy in an oven. “The chemical energy of a molecule of glucose is converted to mechanical energy in our muscles” (James B. Seaborne, 2002). The majority of our technological devises are converters of different forms of energy.
What does it mean by fossil fuel?
"In a sense, the fossil fuels are a one-time gift that lifted us up from subsistence agriculture and should eventually lead us to a future based on renewable resources”