Natural Resources and Energy Review Flashcards

Vocabulary review flashcards covering natural resources, fossil fuels, conservation methods, nuclear fission and fusion, and alternative energy sources.

Natural Resource

A resource that occurs naturally in the environment.

Renewable Natural Resource

A natural resource that can be replaced as quickly as it is used, such as the Sun, wind, and trees.

Nonrenewable Natural Resource

A natural resource that is used faster than it can be replaced, such as oil, petrol, and uranium.

Limited Natural Resource

A finite resource that can be preserved for future use, such as coal, oil, and natural gas.

Unlimited Natural Resource

A resource that is not likely to run out in the future, such as the Sun, water, and trees.

Fossil Fuel

A nonrenewable resource made from old plant or animal waste from the Earth's crust, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, which provides most of the energy used in the United States.

Anthracite

A type of coal with the largest carbon content, found primarily in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Petrochemicals

Products derived from oil, including plastic, vinyl, styrofoam, and cleaners.

Oil and Natural Gas

Fluid natural resources that are pumped from underground and contain less carbon content than coal.

Conservation

The practice of protecting and managing natural resources.

Reducing Waste

A method of conservation achieved by choosing products with less packaging materials.

Reusing Products

The practice of using items multiple times instead of discarding them, such as refilling water bottles.

Recycling

The process of recovering materials that would probably get thrown away, such as scrap iron, plastic, and glass.

Nuclear Energy

Energy produced by splitting atomic nuclei.

Nuclear Fission

A process where atomic nuclei get split into $2$ parts, releasing energy efficiently with less air pollution, but producing radioactive waste and requiring expensive nuclear power plants to build.

Nuclear Fusion

A process where $2$ small atoms combine into $1$ heavier atom, producing less waste and using water as a fuel source, but currently facing the limitation of not being sustainable for long enough.

Power Plant Components (Turbine and Generator)

The two primary components of a power plant, where the turbine drives the generator and the generator produces energy.

Alternative Energy Sources

Unlimited energy options like solar farms, wind turbines, and hydroelectric dams that account for less than $10\%$ of total energy in the United States because they cannot produce enough energy to pay for costs on a large scale.

Hydroelectric, Wave, or Tidal Energy

Alternative energy sources that utilize moving water to produce electricity.

Solar Panels

A solar energy system that converts sunlight directly into electricity.

Passive Solar Heat

A system that heats a large area directly using big windows.

Active Solar Heat

A solar energy system that uses mechanical systems to distribute heat.

Wind Turbines

An alternative energy source where wind spins a generator to convert kinetic energy into electricity, generating noise pollution instead of air pollution.

Geothermal Energy

An alternative energy source that utilizes the Earth's internal heat to produce energy.

Biomass

Substances such as garbage, animal waste, and plant matter that can be burned as alternatives to fossil fuels.

Hydrogen

The most abundant substance in the universe, which produces water when burned inside a fuel cell.