TYPES OF ENERGY
There are various types of energy .They are nuclear, electrical, thermal, chemical, and
radiant energy. In addition, gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy combines to produce
mechanical energy.
Nuclear energy produces heat by fission on nuclei, which is generated by heat engines. Nuclear
energy is the world’s largest source of emission-free energy. There are two processes in Nuclear energy
fission and fusion. In fission, the nuclei of uranium or plutonium atoms are split with the release of
energy. In fusion, energy is released when small nuclei combine or fuse. The fission process is used in all
present nuclear power plants, because fusion cannot be controlled. Nuclear energy is used to heat steam
engines. A Nuclear power plant is a steam engine using uranium as its fuel, and it suffers from low
efficiency.
Electricity powers most factories and homes in our world. Some things like flashlights and Game
Boys use electricity that is stored in batteries as chemical energy. Other items use electricity that comes
from an electrical plug in a wall socket. Electricity is the conduction or transfer of energy from one place
to another. The electricity is the flow of energy. Atoms have electrons circling then, some being loosely
attached. When electrons move among the atoms of matter, a current of electricity is created.
Thermal energy is kinetic and potential energy, but it is associated with the random motion of
atoms in an object. The kinetic and potential energy associated with this random microscopic motion is
called thermal energy. A great amount of thermal energy (heat) is stored in the world’s oceans. Each
day, the oceans absorb enough heat from the sun to equal the energy contained in 250 billion barrels of
oil (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Systems).
Chemical energy is a form of energy that comes from chemical reactions, in which the chemical
reaction is a process of oxidation. Potential energy is released when a chemical reaction occurs, which is
called chemical energy. A car battery is a good example, because the chemical reaction produces
voltage and current to start the car. When a plant goes through a process of photosynthesis, what the
plant is left with more chemical energy than the water and carbon dioxide. Chemical energy is used in
science labs to make medicine and to product power from gas.
Radiant energy exists in a range of wavelengths that extends from radio waves that many be
thousands of meters long to gamma rays with wavelengths as short as a million-millionth (10– 12) of a
meter. Radiant energy is converted to chemical energy by the process of photosynthesis.
The next two types of energy go hand and hand, gravitational potential energy and kinetic
energy. The term energy is motivated by the fact that potential energy and kinetic energy are different
aspects of the same thing, mechanical energy.
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