Title: Unit 4 Overview
Course: REEC 120 Sustainability and Renewable Energy > Section: REEC 120 Sustainability and Renewable Energy

Unit 4 Overview

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In Unit 4 we are going to explore materials from the book Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air by David Mackay. You are expected to read four sections this week:

- “Cars” pages 29- 31
- “Cars II” pages 254-262
- “Planes” pages 35- 37
- "Planes II” pages 269- 282
- "Better Transportation" pages 118-132

The rest of this unit has been adapted from a presentation by Timothy Wilhelm, from Kankakee Community College.
In “Cars,” you should understand what it means by energy per unit of fuel. This is one very important reason why petroleum is such an important fuel source. We are in a race to find an energy source that can contain the same energy density as what we have with petroleum.

In “Cars II,” we get involved with the main areas of energy consumption in a car. The most notable is the heat that is generated to convert chemical to mechanical energy, nearly 75% of the chemical energy is converted to heat and not motion!