October 2010 Lesson

Earth Resources
Everything we have and use is either grown or mined.  Even things that are grown use mineral resources from the earth in the form of fertilizers and pesticides (insect killers).  Lets take a closer look.

How is your electricity created?

1. Coal
2. Oil
3. Gas
4. Nuclear
5. Renewables:
6. Hydropower

• Wind
• Solar
• Geothermal

Things made of coal, oil, and gas:
Billiard balls                  
Bowling balls              
Fertilizers                
Disinfectants                     
Baking powder                          
Paint pigments

Tooth paste

Food preservatives

Batteries

Varnish

Perfumes                    

Plastics                       

Roofing

Laughing gas              

Lipstick 

Roofing

Medicines

Paving

Minerals and metals needed to make a light bulb:

Bulb: glass is made from silica, trona (soda ash), lime, coal, and salt.

Filament: tungsten. Filament may be a straight wire, a coil, or a coiled coil.

Lead-in wires to filament: copper and nickel to carry current to and from filament.

Gas: mixture of agron and nitrogen inside the bulb used to retard burning of the filament

Base: made of brass (copper and zinc) or aluminum.

What is in a sidewalk?

• Sand and gravel for concrete.
• Cement, the other part of concrete is made from shale, clay, quartz, gypsum, iron, alumina, manganese, and limestone.

Minerals in typical computers:

Monitor

Sulfur, hemmimorphite, zincite, smithsonite, franklenite, silver, pyragyrite, halite, bauxite,chalcopyrite, boronite, enargite, cuprite, malachite, azurite, chrysocolla, chalcocite, gold, othoclase, flourite, vesuvianite, lepidolite, dolomite, spinel, olivine, pyrope, biotite, talc, realgar, opriment, cobalite, tetrahedrite, monzanite, and others.

Plastic case, keyboard
Calcite, gypsum, apatite, aragonite, rutile, ilmenite, titanite, pyromorphite, and others.

Flat screen display monitors
Quartz, galena, cerussite, sulfur, hemminmoprhiite, zincite, smithsonite, silver, halite, bauxite, chalcopyrite, boronite, cuprite, malachite, azurite, gold, euxenite, pinel, olivine, biotite, talc, realgar, orpiment, asenopyrite, monzanite, and many others.

Printed circuit boards, computer chips
Quartz, chalcopyrite, boronite, enargite, cuprite, malachite, azuirite, chrsococolla, chalcocite, gold, silver, pyragyrite, cassiterite, bauxite, and others.