Alternate Energy Course Calibration Exercise

The purpose of the exercise is not to achieve a grade but for your instructors to learn the level of
your technical background. We hope that these questions will be relatively easy or that you can review
enough material to be able to do them by next week. You may have to root around a bit for the relevant
facts and conversion factors. Study of energy issues involves a good deal of that. Give explanations if you
are in doubt about your answer.

1/ Page 4 of text H&K gives CO2 world emissions as 23 Gtons for 1997. But page 5 shows that carbon
production for that year was only about 6 Gtons. This is an example of:
a factual contradiction like the various accounts of India’s energy budget given in various texts
an easily resolved pair of statements [if so what is the resolution?]

2/ When a substance is compressed it?

always changes shape
always gets smaller
sometimes gets smaller

3/ Why do battery chargers product DC voltage?

safety
AC ineffective
DC cheaper

4/ How many BTU in a terawatt·hour?

Answer: One BTU (British Thermal Units) is equal to 2.931 ×10-4 kWh (kilowatt hours). One kWh is
equal to 10-9 Terawatt·hour. Hence one BTU is equal to 2.931×10-13.

5/ Methane is burned. How many O2 molecules are needed for complete combustion of each CH4?
Answer: Since the equation of complete combustion of each CH4 is CH4+2O2 → CO2+ 2H2O,
each methane needs 2 molecules to combust completely.

6/ In a crazed quest for energy, combustion of methane is so extensive that we consume 20% of the O2 in
the atmosphere. Roughly how thick a layer of water does this add to the Earth’s surface?
Answer: The quantity of the O2 in the atmosphere is about 20% × 5.1480×1018 kg (The mean weight of
the atmosphere), that is 1.0296×1018 kg. When we consume 20% of the O2 of atmosphere, we
consume 0.20592 ×1018 kg. If we consume this quantity of O2, we will produce 0.2574×1018
(257.7×1015) kg H2O. Since the surface area of the earth is 361×106 km2 (361×1012 m2).
Hence it will add about 1 kilometer thick a layer of water to the Earth’s surface.
1 mm
1m
1 km

7/ Using the attached table of values, use EXCEL or comparable spreadsheet to graph X vs. V.
Fit a line, a quadratic, and a cubic curve to the data and compute the value for V when X is 2 in each case.

X V
0 249.0481
0.1002 242.4337
0.2997 229.03
0.3835 223.1405
0.4999 215.0618
0.5037 214.7389
 0.5981 208.064
0.699 200.9314
0.8243 192.15
0.9003 186.7177
1 179.4061

A: Fitting to a line:
Equation: V=-69.71X+248.6
When X=2, V=110.18

B: Fitting to a quadric curve:

Equation: V = -3.066x2 - 66.63x + 249.1
When X=2, V= 103.576

C: Fitting to a cubic curve:

Equation: V = 1.974x3 - 6.020x2 - 65.53x + 249.0
When X=2, V= 109.652