Week 4 Questions–4th Hour
OK, I am giving you a week off as far as a “God Question” goes, but be prepared for a doozy next week. Some of you have made comments about “Why are we talking about God in chemistry class?” and “Why do you care what we think about God?” Here is my response…”Why wouldn’t I want to listen to what you have to say about God?” I realize that this is not “RELIGION” class but does God live outside religion class or outside church? We should not have a problem sharing our thoughts about God in any atomosphere. Think of it this way…”If we only talked about God in church or Religion class, how would anyone else ever hear about God and how great He is? So, be prepared to have more discussions about God in Chemistry class. Maybe this trend will pass to history class, math class, english class, etc.
Enough soap box time for me…on to this week’s question.
Explain in a minimum of 2, 5 sentence paragraphs the pros and cons to high electricity and high transportation usage of the average American. Could we live without using so much energy? How would life be different if we used less like solar power, wind power, geothermal energy, electric cars instead of gas and much more. Explain the convenience factor. Could Americans upset their lives of convenience for the preservation of our air quality? Does it matter?
As usual, there a quite a few questions. The goal is not for you to specifically answer each question, but they are given so that you have some direction in writing your response. I want you to think carefully about the questions and respond accordingly.
YOU WILL RECEIVE NO CREDIT THIS WEEK IF I DO NOT SEE TWO PARAGRAPHS WITH A MINIMUM OF FIVE SENTENCES EACH. I usually do not look for long drawn out answers, but some of you need to put a bit more thought into your answers, so we will start with 2 paragraphs and 5 sentences. It may increase from here.
Question 2: H2 was collected by water displacement from the reaction of 0.45g of zinc in excess nitric acid at 24C and an atmospheric pressure of 700mmHg. What is the molar volume of H2 gas produced according to this experiment? I need a summary of the math here.
24 comments Mr. Holt | AP Chemistry (1st)
Question 1:
As of 2005, the average American household used 938 kilowatt hours. There has probably been a slight increase since then. Americans also drive an average of a little over twelve thousand miles per year. This shows that the average American uses a large amount of energy each year. I don’t think all the energy we use is necessary. For example, some people keep appliances, such as toasters or microwaves, unnecessarily plugged in all day. Even when objects are not being used, they are still wasting energy because most Americans feel that the pro of efficiency outweighs the con of harming the environment.
The world would be a much better place if we would make an effort to consume energy. Carpooling and recycling are both easy and effective ways to protect the environment and save energy. Yet, many people are unwilling to give up their current lifestyle. For example, some people would not use a windmill at their house because they think it is ugly. Other people may not use an electric car because they are unwilling to give up the style and size of their gas-guzzling truck. I know that not everyone can afford an electric car and not everyone has the opportunity to carpool. Yet there is not one person who has nothing they can do for the environment. If everyone did their part and tried a little harder, the environment could improve greatly.
There are many pros and cons to the use of electricity and the large amounts of it that the average American uses. Some of the pros include the fact that just about everything runs on electricity. It makes technological advances easier. Electricity can also ensure that things are done much more efficiently. The cons are that is it quite dangerous to use. It also depletes our natural resources and can cause pollution problems.
Of course, we could not live without electricity completely or at least not without the energy that it brings. Every day, energy is used and for the way that Americans live now we would not be able to go without those luxuries which are actually necessities now. Yes, there are many different resources that with the right amount of research we would hopefully be able to replace our exorbitant use of electricity with. This includes things such as dams, solar power, windmills, etc. This would decrease our reliance on non renewable resources and other products that cause high amounts of pollution. I believe that when the time comes we will be able to efficiently use these, but right now none of these are efficient or affordable enough to cover the daily electrical needs of all people.
#1. We definitely should not use as much gas and energy because it destroys the environment. We should start to use less unneeded energy such as forgetting to turn off the lights or have the lights on during the day when the sun could lighten the room. Americans need to realize how much of their energy usage is completely unneeded, and they are destroying the environment. The energy that we use could also come from other places such as wind or solar power. This would help to reduce the destruction of the environment, and that could make the world a better place for many more years.
Cutting down on the use of energy does have some cons, however. It is much less convenient for Americans to drive 45 mph on the highway than drive 70 mph. Many Americans would become angry as a result of the very little convenience of environmental friendly energy. They would not be able to change their lifestyles, even if it meant that the environment would suffer as a result of this. I do not think that people will ever be able to make their lives less convenient, just so the next generation has a good environment and air quality.
High electricity and high transportation are two of the most debated topics and problems today. The fact that we do use them so much shows that it is needed. Yet we know they are harmful so we are trying to stop. Our nation needs convienience so getting rid of some ease is hard for us. We need to do whatever is the easiest.
The majority of America is not going to give up convienience to save the world. It is highly needed though. Many people think it does not matter if they stop driving as much but it does. Everything we can do helps. America NEEDS to start thinking about environment more and less about themselves. SAVE THE PLANET!
This is an interesting topic Senor Holt. Right off the bat, i read about conserving energy and all that stuff. Yeah, okay. Like this will ever happen in America. We are so dependent on lightning fast things and making sure they are always right at the tip of our fingers. We are one of but a handful of countries that have this blessing.
Although the change might take time, i feel it is a possibility. We could switch energy sources and learn to cope with them. Some might get angered, but it will eventually become natural. Before I got a phone, i was easily able to live without it. Once you have something so easily, a habit forms. The thing is, we lived before this excess of energy, and we can live without it. Habits are hard to break, but i feel we could.
There are many pros to electricity however, the cons simply weigh them out. Everything in our modern world uses electricty to function. Also with the abundance of electricity, it makes tasks easier to do. Also, everyone uses at least on method of transportation that uses electricity everyday. The truth is though that electricity is bad for our environment and our natural resources.
To fix this problem, we need to use alternative sources. If more alternative products become easier to get, it will be more convienent for people and for the air. I think we could do it and eventually we will. As of now it may not be very convienent but, we need to do it to save our future world.
The major pro to the average American’s high electricity and transportation use is the fact that it provides significant convenience. The convenience that it provides is that it enables an easy way for people to complete the tasks that they need to complete in their everyday lives. It allows people to do what they have to do and go where they need to go. It keeps people from having to take extra time out of their own lives, thus becoming a convenient factor rather than an inconvenient one. Overall, it simply provides average Americans with a more convenient way of life. High electricity and transportation use is not necessarily good for our environment, but it does give us the ability to get things done faster and better.
The con to high electricity and transportation use is that it contributes to the destruction of our environment. It makes the air we breathe of lesser quality because of the toxic emissions that it can release into our environment, especially when speaking of transportation. Our reliance on transportation is heavy, and so when we use our gasoline powered cars as much as we do, we significantly contribute to a lower quality of air. Eventually, if the quality of our air keeps getting worse, it will catch up to us, and numerous environmental problems will be presented into our lives as a result. Therefore, it is up to the “average American” to learn to endure more inconvenient lives so that the quality of our air will be better and our environment will prosper.
#1
First of all high electricity and high transportation usage have both there pros and there cons. The cons to high electricity and high transportation usuage is most clearly pollution and cost. the amount of vehicles on the road these days is crazy. It seems like every family has at least two cars, and that creates a lot of pollution. Also, americans these days waste a lot of energy that burns non renewable resources. The pros to high electricity and high transportation usage is however a convienience that all americans have grown acustom to. It is hard for any of us to imagine not driving our cars every where and using electricity at will.
I feel that Americans could be “reprogrammed” to be more fuel efficient, and energy smart. We would all definatley have to make some changes and be more conscience of our energy. We may end up relying on sunlight and wind to give us energy. This may seem crazy right now but i feel that americans would be able to make the change. however, at frist it would be a struggle for everyone, but we could change in time. I definately feel americans would have to become a lot more patient and rely more on public transportation.
# 1
#1
First of all high electricity and high transportation usage have both there pros and there cons. The cons to high electricity and high transportation usuage is most clearly pollution and cost. the amount of vehicles on the road these days is crazy. It seems like every family has at least two cars, and that creates a lot of pollution. Also, americans these days waste a lot of energy that burns non renewable resources. The pros to high electricity and high transportation usage is however a convienience that all americans have grown acustom to. It is hard for any of us to imagine not driving our cars every where and using electricity at will.
I feel that Americans could be “reprogrammed” to be more fuel efficient, and energy smart. We would all definatley have to make some changes and be more conscience of our energy. We may end up relying on sunlight and wind to give us energy. This may seem crazy right now but i feel that americans would be able to make the change. however, at frist it would be a struggle for everyone, but we could change in time. I definately feel americans would have to become a lot more patient and rely more on public transportation
A lot of people use too much electricity everyday. Many Americans use more electricity then they really need, and if they really tried they could use less. Also the high transportation usage could be minimized by carpooling. Many families have two or three cars and could easily reduce the use of them if they carpooled to work or school. The pros to using less transportation would be that it would be better for our environment. But on the other hand, it would be very inconvenient or more difficult to try and arrange that.
Using wind power and solar power would also be good for our environment and help save energy. Driving electric cars would also be a very good way to stay environmentally friendly and also save money on gas. I think that if people would put aside the inconvient part of this and just work at it that our air quality would be much better. Even though it would be inconvient and hard at first, but in the end woudl give us a good result. In the end, i think that people just need to put the effort into changing the way we do things and help our environemnt.
Solar panels give off no pollution, the only pollution produced as a result of solar panels is the manufacturing of these devices in factories, transportation of the goods, and installation. One of the great pros of solar energy is the ability to harness electricity in remote locations that are not linked to a national grid. A prime example of this is in space, where satellites are powered by high efficiency solar cells.
some cons are Solar energy is only able to generate electricity during daylight hours. This means for around half of each day, solar panels are not producing energy for your home.
The weather can affect the efficiency of solar cells.Pollution can be a con of solar energy, as pollution levels can affect a solar cells efficiency, this would be a major con for businesses or industry wishing to install solar panels in heavily polluted areas, such as cities.
The are some pros for high electricity and high transportation usagae of the average American. One pro is that you are able to use many different types of transportation because of fuel. A second pro is that it would be convenient for most people because they already have fuel cars and have electricity and it would be inconvenient to change from that. One con could be that we pollute the earth and waste fossil fuels and other resources.Second, we waste money to get electricity and gas when we could use solar power and wind to create electricity for homes and even cars. So there are pros to high usage of electricity and transportation, but there is also cons with that.
I think that we could easily live without without using so much energy. It would be a little different, but you would get used to it. If we need energy and electricity, we can use solar power and wind power for electricity. We could also make all the cars run on electricity. Electric cars are currently being invented and they are almost as fast as ordinary cars these days. I don’t think that if we got rid of gas cars and other transportation by gas, that it would be inconvenient. If people think that this would be inconvenient, it wouldn’t really matter. They would just have to get used to it.
There are many very apparent pros to having high electricity and high transportation usage in the U.S. And almost all of them have to do with convience and efficiency. For example, it is convient to always have a light on in your room, or always have the computer on so you do not have to continually turn them on and off and off and on which seems just to be a time waster. It is a pro to have high electricity because it makes people happy in that they do not feel like they are wasting precious time. For high transportation, it is also very convient. It is easier to have 4 cars in one household than just 1 because then there would be many issues with timings and fights over who gets to drive etc. In our busy everyday livestyles it is much easier to be using a lot of electricity and transportation because it seems to make everyone less stressed and get more done.
Unfortunately, there are a great deal of cons that come along with high electricty/transportation. Due to the fact that Americans are completely wrapped up in those same busy livestyles as earlier mentioned, it is making them forget about what they are doing to our planet. By having their instant gratification of convience, they are killing themselves and everyone else. The many cons these high rates possess can be summed up by saying they are a huge factor in destruction of the environment. With our gas powered cars and big houses with all the lights on we are damaging the earth we live in. If people would stop and think about all the danger they are causing to their families I bleieve they would think twice about putting their convience first.
If everyone would care about our world just a little more I think that we could all become healthier and more at peace. If we all worked together we could end the high electric and transporation and still be happy with efficiency. It would be very hard for the average American to simply give up their convient lifestyle, but if it was more of a gradual change I think everyone would start to care. We could gradually switch to solar power and soon every car could become an electric one. I may be naive but I think that Americans really do care at least a little about their environment and are willing to make their lives a little less convient to fix it. People can realize that our air quality does matter and if they believe they can make a difference then everyone will want to.
Electricity and transportation are the leading cause of pollution in today’s environment. It could be very easy to cut back on transportation and electricity, if only every American carpooled or started to ride their bike more often. Many Americans feel like they need to drive every time they go outside, riding your bike to the bank or to work once a week could save an enormous amount of money and gas. Another problem is how many cars an Average American home has, which is 3. I don’t see why we cannot car pool more and drop one another off instead of driving by themselves all the time.
If we started to use wind and solar energy more often we could save billions of dollars every year and we could cut our pollution rate in half, helping the environment and saving money at the same time. This new technology is still being developed and will one day soon help this country save money and stop pollution.
Question 1:
There are many pros and cons to the high electricity and high transportation usage of the average American. Some of the pros of using high electricity and transportation are that they make cars and other ways of transportation go faster. Many Americans are impatient and they can’t wait for solar powered cars and things go at their maximum speed because their maximum speed isn’t fast enough for the average American. The cons to the high electricity and transportation usage of the average American are that the cost of people’s electric bills are really high and we are polluting our air by using non-solar cars. Americans have high electric bills because they are wasteful of the electricity that they have in their homes. They don’t turn off lights when they leave a room and they are wasteful of water. We could lower the average Americans high electric and transportation usage by conserving energy and not driving all around town so much.
I don’t think we could live without using so much energy because of the fact that we are so reliable on energy. We need energy in the everyday things we do, from driving to place to place running errands and by using our household items to get things done. I think life would be very different if we used more solar and wind powered resources because we wouldn’t be polluting our air. I think Americans could upset the lives of convenience for the preservation of our air quality because they wouldn’t be used to using different forms of transportation to get around. It would also take longer for them to get used to changing their whole lifestyle in order to preserve our air.
There are many pros to the high usage of electricity by the American people. Americans have the ability to do everything when it is of the greatest convenience to them. We can drive across town or even farther basically whenever we want. We have the use of television and computers at the tips of our fingers for out entertainment. We take all of these things for granted and I do not believe that our country could grow out of this, we rely to much on being able to do things at lightning speed.
The cons should outweigh the pros in the lives of American people because of the importance of them, but in most cases, it does not. People are to attached to convenience. People waste energy everyday using lights when it isnt necessary, or leaving the heat on with windows open, or the a/c with windows open. We have no regard for what things will be like for future generations. We need to invest in other sources of energy such as solar and wind power. Without this the future generations will be at a loss because it is likely that the damage that we have done will be irreversible.
In response to Gabe, I agree that something needs to be done to reduce our use of nonrenewable energy. But, I do not think it will be easy to just reduce our use of electrcity. I would like to think that it would be easy and all people would gladly do it, but with the ways that people use energy now it has pretty much turned into a neccesscity of life to use eectricty. I agree that alternative energy sources need to discovered ir researched and used, yet people will not be easily willing to change life styles if it will become that much of an inconvience to them. I do think with enough research and advertising though people will eventually use alternative energy sources without any problems, but it will have to become much more reliable and efficient first.
I’m ashamed to say this, but I, Tom Pallas, agree with Lance Marczak. He speaks the truth and I hear it. Our convience level is at an all time high, and our enviroment is at an all time low.
i agree with lauren there are many pros, but also many cons and if the people in the world would care enough to try and fix it maybe we could make it a better enviroment,no one worries about the problems until. they can feel them theirselves which is said and we need to change that and be more aware of these problems.
I agree with Tom because I also think that it might take a long time, but eventually Americans will be able let go of convenience to save the planet. It will be a long process, though, and it will take little steps each day to break this habit of convenience. Eventually, people will do their part to save the planet, so they can make it better for everyone in the future.
I agree with Lance. The average American has to realize how much our transportation pollutes the earth. The exhausts send toxins into the air and pollute it. If we keep on polluting the earth, our environment is going to get a lot worse. Thats when people would regret how they used so much transportation and unused energy that pollutes the earth. We should cut down on transportation and not waste electricity.
I agree with Gabe because I also believe that we should reduce our use of electricity and transportation. I think that a little less connivance in our lives would really affect us at all. I think that we could easily learn to adapt to less convenient lives by reducing our use of electricity and transportation resources. There are other ways to fulfill our electric and transportation needs such as relying more upon solar and wind power. If we do this, then I firmly believe that our environment will flourish.
i am goin to have to agree with tom pallas on this one. he makes a great point when he talks about being able to get by fine with out a cell phone, but know that we all have them it seems rediculous to live with out. Before all of the technology in electricity and transportation took place the US was able to survive just fine. In fact they where in better shape back then than we are know. People have been able to survive just fine without technology and transportation so we as americans should be able to make little sacrifices to save our enviroment
I disagree with Jake because I think people do care enough to change their livestyles for the benefit of their next generations and about the planet in general.