Geothermal energy- is the heat energy beneath the earth's surface.

It's obviously from the earth's

core, for on the word "Geo"

and the other source is radioactive materials.

Why is the Earth's core has a very high tenperature?

There are mainly two reasons:

1. The kinetic energy from collisions of rocks turns into thermal or heat energy that has been
trapped in the earth's core

2. Radioactive elements that decays and produces heat.

So the important detail that we're going to discuss is how do the heat from the core travels towards
the crust, heats water that we can use in geothermal powerplants.

So first let's start off with convection current.

A convection current is a process that involves the movement of energy from one place to another.
It is also called convection heat transfer. These are created as a result of the differences occurring
within the densities and temperature of a specific gas or fluid.

Now that we're done with convection current that is responsible for transportation of core's heat,
let's talk about radioactive elements.

Radioactive elements are made up of atoms whose nuclei are unstable and give off atomic radiation
as part of a process of attaining stability.

Before we proceed to how geothermal powerplant works, let us find out how radioactive elements
add to earth's heat.

We have a process call Radioactive decay, and it only happens when there is an isotopes.

Now what is an isotopes?

So basically, isotope are elements that has the same atomic number and place in periodic table but
differ in number of neutrons in the nucleus.

Or it could be that the nuclei has more proton or neutron, that only means that it has only
something to do in the nucleus but not in the orbit of an atom. If there's too much proton nor
neutron in the nucleus, there's too much energy and that's why it loosen some of it to maintain
balance.

(ayaw na pag explain hin duro kay promise dre hira makakaintindi hin dali dali) Octet rule states that
an atom tends to give or recieve an electron until it reaches stability. The basic rule in this universe.

Similar in the nucleus, it seeks stability.

The prominent example of elements that is a high radioactive isotope is Uranium and Thorium. They
contribute for about half of the earth's heat generated that we can use for powerplants that gives
off electricity such as nuclear and geothermal energy.

We have three types of decaying radioactive elements.

-Alpha
-Beta -

-and Beta +

Alpha decay is the loss of alpha particle where there is 2 proton with a mass of 4.

Beta- happens when there is too much neutron, it is the conversion of an atom to nucleus and
results to produce an electeon that is high in energy.

Beta+ also known as positron decay happens when there is too much proton. It's the opposite of
beta-Beta+ and beta minus has similarities, their mass number does'nt change, but their atomic
number does. In beta- (you gain proton and then produce negative beta particle) while in beta+
( you lose proton and then produce positron or positive beta particles)

We'll know if an atom's nucleus is stable or not, then what type of decay is going to occur by looking
at the NZ graph.

(again dre na ig didiscuss kay damo)

So those three are the main particles produced in decaying of radioactive materials that carries
energy with them or to be precise, it's heat.

By that it is now clear how do we get heat beneath the crust. Now let's tackle up geothermal
powerplants.

So here how it works

Heat from the earth warms water, and when it is hot enough, it breaks its way towards the surface
of the earth, some examples of these are hot spring, steam, etc.

In the past, taking advantage of geothermal energy was limited to areas where hot water flows near
the surface. But as the time goes by, technology keeps on evolving that we can actually do a lot of
stuffs in order to use it.

We have three types of geothermal powerplant.

Geothermal Dry steam- where undergorund steam directly flows into a turbine and spins the turbine
that is connected into a generator.

Flash steam geothermal- a pump pushes the hot water into a tank in the surface, then as it cools it
turns into vapor then drives the turbine and powers a generator.

Binary cycle geothermal- this one works differently, it uses two types of fluid.

Hot fluid from underground heats another fluid that has a low boiling point.

Philippines source of eletricity are mostly generated from geothermal powerplants because we are
located at the pacific ring of fire where a lot of volcanoes are situated.

So here's the working principle of geothermal powerplants.

First, hot water rises towards a surface of the earth and stores it on a reservoir.

The hot water is converted into a steam and flows towards the turbine
As the steam flows, the turbine rotates and a shaft is connected to a generator.

The steam is being converted back into water, then it undergoes condensation to inject it back to the
earth's mantle.

The generator then generates electricity.

When we say generator, we convert mechanical energy to electrical energy. And here we apply the
rule of electromagnetic induction.

The generator then is connected to a transformer which steps up the voltage. The reason why we do
have to increase the voltage is for it to reach distant places.

We have a formula

R= PL÷A

The relation of length and area of to resistance is directly proportional. As the length and area of
wire increases, the resistivity also increases. That's the reason why we place transformer, to amplify
the voltage.

As it goes near to our respective homes, it must undergo to a step down transformer for us to use
the electricity in the standard 220V that is suitable for our devices to work.

Now that we've discussed converting geothermal energy to electricity thoroughly, i am certain that
you already have the prior knowledge before we proceed to Matter and Energy Flow in our
ecosystem.

The example that we have here is geosphere, interacting with hydrosohere, and probably this also
includes biosphere since we are the one using the electricity.

Imagine our society without electricity, life would probably be dull and tiresome.

Another thing that we will share is the law of conservation of energy, this might be useful since we
will be dealing with Energy flow. It states that "Energy is not built nor created, it us only converted
into other forms". That means that the energy flow in our environment is spontaneously or
continuously happens.

Guys correction

*The relation of the length of wire to the resistivity is directly proprtional, while areas relationship to
resistivity is inversely proportional. That means that when we increase the length of a wire, the
resistance increases, and when you increase the area, the resistance decreases. That's the reason
why we place transformer, to amplify the voltage.*