Your body uses chemical energy to get your strength, and both you and your teacher are correct. Chemical energy in plants and other food is potential energy. This chemical energy is released as it is "burned" or oxidized inside our bodies during digestion - fueling our bodies. Your body actually doesn't shut down totally when you sleep of course, because the your digestive system is always working, breaking down the food into chemical and heat energy fueling your lungs, brain, heart, etc. What your teacher probably means is that your body is at rest and is considered more potential energy (at rest) than when you are awake, walking around (kinetic).

These electromagnetic waves have different wavelengths and frequencies. Like ocean waves...some are very low, with just a few waves every minute and just roll onto the shore, while others seem to crash down, one right after another. The distance between one wave peak and the next one is called the wavelength. The number of these peaks that pass by you each second is called the frequency. The light you see (the colored rainbow) is called visible light and is only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Each of these colors
its own wavelength and frequency.

Mechanical energy is work or energy made by machines. Early civilizations used "mechanical" energy to do work like lifting, grinding corn, building and transporting people and goods by harnessing natural forces such as wind and water. Today we use engines, powered by fossil fuels or renewable energy, to do work.

Friction is a force that holds one object back against another. If you try to push a book along a table, at first it will not move. As you push harder, the book eventually begins to slide. But as the book rubs along the table, the force of friction slows it down. Friction always works to stop things moving or slow them down when they are moving.

Compression just means squeezed together into a smaller space. For example, gases can be squashed or compressed into a smaller space. A compressed gas, like air, in a balloon pushes out equally in all directions. The more you compress a gas, the higher the pressure in it becomes.

Distortion can have several meanings depending on what area of energy you are referring to. Basically it means twisting out of a proper relationship of parts... you can distort a sound wave or distort an image from a lens.

Thanks for asking.

The friction match (or the stick match), has one end of the stick dipped in a fireproofing agent so that it will not burn readily and the other end is coated with paraffin. The head of the match contains an oxidizing agent such as potassium chlorate, a substance which oxidizes readily (here's your sulfur or rosin), a filler of clay, a binding material such as glue, dye to give it distinctive color and at the very tip, and a small amount of phosphorus trisulfide, which decomposes and burns at a low temperature, igniting the paraffin.

Safety matches are designed so that the head can be ignited only by striking on a specially prepared surface on the match package. The tip of the safety match contains antimony trisulfide and an oxidizing agent (such as potassium chlorate), again held in place with casein or glue. The difference is the striking surface on the package contains powdered glass for friction, red phosphorus and glue. When the match is struck the heat of friction converts the red phosphorus, which ignites and, in turn, ignites the head of the match.

People don't think we really have an energy problem. They only get upset when there is a shortage or if their lights go out. We do have a huge problem, however, with America's over reliance on imported oil, and we have a greenhouse gas problem because of using fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas.

So, what California and many other states and countries have begun to do is use renewable energy like solar, wind and geothermal. While these energy resources still impact the environment, they do not have as drastic an effect as fossil fuels. Renewable energy comes from a source that is almost infinite, but fossil fuels are finite -- once they are burned they are gone.

How did we get such massive amounts of information on our site?

Well, we began our Energy Quest site about three years ago. We already had some good information on paper, and we put that info on line.

We've also added new games and puzzles and other things over the years. We keep adding things....little bit by little bit.

Are there other sites we'd recommend?

Yes...the National Renewable Energy Labs site has some good stuff.

Also check out CREST, the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology.

Thanks for writing.

The Professor Answers:
Chemical energy, the energy stored in molecules, can be converted (changed) into energy that can heat your home, make steam to turn a turbine to generate electricity or move a car. Some examples are a battery... the chemical energy stored in batteries can be changed to electrical energy when the charge at one electrode of the battery flows to the opposite charge at the other electrode. Did you know you can make a battery from a lemon?

Your body also makes chemical energy when it converts food into energy so that you can walk or run or think.

Over millions of years, the sun's energy (called thermal) has been stored in countless living bodies. After many chemical changes, they turn into coal, oil and gas. When we burn these fuels, we release this energy. Another form of a chemical reaction to produce energy is from a nuclear power plant using radioactive materials.

Thanks for asking!