ShmoopTube

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Hydroelectric damns, nuclear fission reactors, photovoltaic cells

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coal-burning power plants internal combustion engine these are all systems [Lightning bolt cartoon whistling and is kidnapped by two men]

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for grabbing energy without them we couldn't check our email drive to school

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or play pokemon go well some uses are more productive than other but [Man is knocked down by an orange car]

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seriously without all that energy technology the world would look a lot

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more like Little House on the Prairie except with less wholesome family fun [Little House on the Prairie on the television]

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and more scrabbling to survive using only human muscle power all right so [Woman changing the channel on the TV]

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your minds probably buzzing with questions or maybe just an infestation

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of bees, you should probably check that out but if you do have questions they might sound a

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little like this why didn't people harness the power of energy sooner what [People protesting regarding why energy wasn't harnessed sooner]

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were the major revolutions in energy production why do hoverboards catch fire

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well think of this lesson a handy dandy tool box for the whole unit in [Toolbox opens to release a selection of tools]

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slices it dices it gives a basic understanding of what energy is and how

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we use it though er diving right in not to get too technical but to energy is power and [Man dressed as a genie holding the word Energy in one hand and Power in the other]

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beyond that well its existence yeah it sounds like something a yoga teacher my

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say over soothing world music and bubble tea but it's also a scientific [Woman performing yoga on a mountainside]

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fact everything in the universe is made of energy getting objects to release

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their energy is the tricky part it's not as easy is tickling a flatulent old [A boy tickles an elderly man on a bench]

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person well we live on a particular chunk of floating space debris called

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Earth chances are that whoever is watching this so it does too.. Nice to

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have things in common though any aliens watching this are welcome to shmoop does [ET Alien sat beside a spacecraft command center]

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not discriminate anyway on our shared planet of Earth we receive boatloads of

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energy every second from our closest star most people have heard of it it's [Truck delivering energy to Earth]

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called though what name again oh yeah the Sun lots of ancient cultures

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worshipped the Sun as a god these days most people on earth don't believe that [Sun brightly shining in the distance]

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the Sun is an all-knowing being in the sky but those ancient cultures weren't

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actually too far off the mark the Sun and the energy it beams to us are [Sun beaming energy to a seed in soil]

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responsible for all life on Earth well the earliest

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microorganisms were solar powered and our entire world ecosystem works because of [Tiny microorganisms holding solar panels]

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the Sun.. So in a way the Sun is like the great creator gods of many religions

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without it we would not exist the story of human technology is really the story

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of human control over energy the amount of energy we can access and how [Girl steals mans Energy sign out of his hands]

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efficiently we use it has increased drastically over time only the cavemen

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could see us driving around Hummers what would they say maybe something like hey

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bud those fossil fuels your burning are made up of the decayed remains of me and [Cavemen telling modern people about fossil fuels]

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my friends or maybe they just grunt and shake their clubs

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