radiant energy examples in everyday life

#RADIANT ENERGY EXAMPLES IN EVERYDAY LIFE DRIVER#

The common forms of energy used in our houses are electrical energy, chemical energy available from fuels, food and energy originating from the sun. However, a force is not a form of energy. See the focus ideaĪ force acting on an object may result in the object moving faster and gaining kinetic energy or rising higher and gaining gravitational potential energy or being compressed or stretched resulting in stored elastic potential energy. Light, like radiant heat, is part of the electromagnetic spectrum and is also a form of energy.

Sound energy involves the vibration of the particles in the medium through which the sound energy travels.

Sound and light are also forms of energy. There is nothing different about the energy associated with living things. Heat, gravitational and chemical energy and movement are all different forms of energy. The concept of energy has taken a long time to develop and is an invented idea created to better understand changes that occur in our world.

#RADIANT ENERGY EXAMPLES IN EVERYDAY LIFE DRIVER#

Research: Carr, Kirkwood, Newman & Birdwhistel (1987), Driver & Millar (1986), Duit & Haeussler (1994), Skamp (2004), Solomon (1983, 1992), Watts (1983) Scientific viewīecause energy is so widely discussed in the world and carefully calculated by scientists it is often wrongly thought to physically exist as some kind of substance. Is energy conserved or running out? explores the problems in defining and describing energy. The difficulty of distinguishing between the source and type of energy reflects just one of the challenges presented to students in attempting to define or even describe what energy actually is. Many students know that electrical energy is generated in various ways, but they often do not distinguish the origins or sources of this energy (solar, hydroelectricity or fossil fuels) from the types of energy that are available from these sources radiant, gravitational potential and chemical energy.įor example, petrol is often seen as a ‘type’ of energy rather than a store of chemical energy.

Most students commonly underestimate the amounts of energy needed to heat or cool things, and overestimate the energy required to operate electronic equipment like computers and CD or DVD players. Many students have little knowledge of the comparative amounts of energy required by various household appliances or tools to operate. Sometimes students think that energy is only present while the transformation is being made. Students know that we produce heat in our homes by burning wood or natural gas or using electricity, but, as is explored in the focus ideaĮnergy producing and consuming reactions, they often do not recognise that the energy has been transformed by the appliance into several other forms of energy (motion, heat, sound and light energy). Students are familiar with energy being purchased in the form of petrol, electricity or natural gas to be used by cars or household appliances. The ways students use ‘energy’ often vary across different contexts electricity and living things. These examples show that the meanings students have developed for the word ‘energy’ are less precise and more restricted than the way it is used in science. For some students, energy is primarily associated with animals or humans, they see that only animals or humans can have energy. Sound and or light are often not seen by students to be forms of energy at all. Students often associate energy with phenomena such as force, motion, heat and electricity, but they often consider this energy to be different to the energy associated with living things.

Contrasting student and scientific viewsĬontrasting student and scientific views Student everyday experiencesĮnergy is a word students frequently encounter and use every day.

Radiant energy examples in everyday life