• Question: what do you think will happen to energy in the future?

    Asked by kieran98 to David, James, Mike, Suze, Will on 14 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Suze Kundu

      Suze Kundu answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Energy will carry on being energetic 🙂 Overall, the amount of energy available remains the same. It just changes from one form (e.g. electricity) to another (e.g. heat), and is constantly changing. It’s really energy in the form of fuel that is the problem at the moment, as it is polluting the environment, and it’s running out.

    • Photo: Mike Dodd

      Mike Dodd answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I’m sure some of the bright sparks in our groups will come up with great ways to help meet the ever growing demand for energy from fuel. There definitely needs to be a solution quick, to counter the growing CO2 release from burning fossil fuels. In the future we will be using fuel that is from more sustainable sources, that is better for the environment and that can meet the growing demand of the large population of the earth. Great question 🙂

    • Photo: James Marrow

      James Marrow answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      We’ll use less of it each, but the world will use a lot more of it in total, particularly in India and China. Making and moving anything needs energy. It’ll also probably get a lot more expensive, which will force us to use less of it. At the moment, even though we complain about the cost of it, who has yet reduced the setting on their home thermostat or put on an extra wooly jumper in the winter?!

    • Photo: David Ingram

      David Ingram answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      It will be conserved but all dissipate into low grade heat. This is a consequence of two of the Laws of Thermodynamics. This is particularly true in fluid flow where fast moving flows create turbulent whirls, that in turn create smaller whirls… there is a poem

      “Bigger whirls have little whirls that feed of their velocity
      and little whirls have lesser whirls and so on till viscosity.”

      On other fronts we will have to find an alternative to our addiction to fossil fuels. If we don’t then we face ever increasing energy costs and rolling blackouts. This may seem gloomy but every time we have faced a challenge like this we’ve found a way forward – so I think the future of Energy will be exciting

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