Dr. ERNEST BEHRINGER
ENERGY AND SOCIETY
Background
Our
modern society depends critically on energy to provide water,
food, comfortable shelter, and a very high quality of life.
Energy is extracted from material fuels by nuclear and chemical
reactions as well as mechanical action, and from sunlight by
absorption. The efficiencies with which material fuels and sunlight
can be utilized are determined by the principles of science.
The amount of available material fuels that remain on the Earth
is of central importance because of an increasing global population
that strives for an increasing quality of life. The amount of
available fuels, together with the efficiency with which we
use them, will in large part determine the future of all societies
on this planet, including ours. It is therefore the responsibility
of every citizen to understand the concept of energy and the
physical principles that govern its utilization.
A
description of the American Democracy Project event, "Will
My Kids Have Energy? Questions and Answers about America's Energy
Future", can be found here.
An
assignment about exponential growth and energy supply can be
found here.
A
web page with simple estimates of fossil fuel lifetimes can
be found here.
Ideas for Projects
There are several possible projects to pursue. The list below is intended as a start:
- Studying fuel supply in the state, the nation, and the world.
- Studying the impact of fossil fuel utilization on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration.
- Studying the design of energy efficient houses.
- Studying existing computational models for fuel use.
- Studying the impact of proposed energy-related legislation.
Interested?
If you have approximately 8-10 hours a week to give, you might consider doing an independent study project. You should be prepared to learn and/or implement numerical methods to make quantitative predictions related to energy use.
