Energy and Us

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Courtesy of the video: Power Thoughts Meditation Club

The video above is perfect for meditation as energy boosting. In everything that we do, there are changes taking place inside our body. Scientists say we "burn up" the food we eat to give us energy. When we move about walking or running or jogging, we use up energy. When we exert effort as in swimming or pushing a cart, we use up energy. After doing heavy work using our muscles, we feel hungry because all of the foods we ate before the activity has already been burned up. Even when we read, we use energy, although not as much as we do heavy works. Observe that it is related to moving about or doing some work to any activity where we exert effort. Even while sleeping, we use it up but in a lesser amount than when we are running and swimming.

Common forms of energy include the kinetic energy of a moving object, the potential energy stored by an object's position in a force field (gravitational, electric or magnetic), the elastic energy stored by stretching solid objects, the chemical energy released when a fuel burns, the radiant energy carried by light, and the thermal energy due to an object's temperature.

-Wikipedia

Using Food Energy

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Our body energy COMES FROM THE FOODS WE ATE. different people eat different kinds of the number of foods depending on their activities. A farmer eats more than a teacher. The farmer has to eat more of the energy-giving food like rice, sweet potatoes, bananas to give him energy in doing the heavy works in the fields. A teacher eats less of the energy-giving foods because they are more active.

Energy from foods gives us the force to move our body. It also keeps organ such as the heart, the lungs, and the stomach functioning. It keeps our body warm.

Know your body well and research what foods give energy and how much you need daily. Include how these foods are changed to supply it to your body.

The information below gives a list of some of a man's activities usually do and the approximate rate at which activity uses food energy. This energy unit is in kilo-calories.

The rate of Using Food Energy Per Minute

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Activity and Energy Units Used per Minute

  • Sleeping: 1.0 to 1.3
  • Lying down: 1.3- 1.6
  • Sitting still: 1.6- 1.9
  • Standing up: 1.9- 2.1
  • Walking: 3.8
  • running fast: 9- 12
  • Swimming: 9

 

The above information gives us rate of using energy per minute. How much food energy do we use up if we TAKE AN AFTERNOON NAP FOR TWO HOURS? If we run for 30 minutes?

The energy in the food we eat is in the form of CHEMICAL ENERGY according to Science. When our body "burns" the food we eat, food energy is changed into body energy of HEAT ENERGY. It enables us to run or do some work like pushing a cart. When we push the cart, part of our body energy is in turn changed into the energy of motion of the cart.

Another product of burning down of food that we eat is WATER. If we do some heavy work, we perspire more and the water comes out perspiration.

If we fan ourselves, our perspiration dries up and we feel cool and fresh. What makes us feel cool?

Energy for Everyday Living

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Man's early experience tells him that if he wants the things done, he MUST USE HIS MUSCLES. The Stone Age, the man survived by using his muscles to get foods that gave him energy. But compared to animals, man is weak. So he had to use aids and devices to look for food. He soon discovered that a bow and arrow gave him more power to hunt for food.

To produce fire, he learned to rub two sticks or stones together. To make himself warm, he rubs his two hands together. These were the beginning of MAN's PRIMITIVE TECHNOLOGY to give him energy and power so he could survive. Much later, a man discovers that there were stores of energy buried underground. Coal, peat, petroleum, and natural gas could be dug from underground. All of these are energy sources. They are called FUELS that contain energy. When fuels burn, they give off energy.

A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the potential energy from a fuel into electricity through an electrochemical reaction of hydrogen fuel with oxygen or another oxidizing agent. Fuel cells are different from batteries in requiring a continuous source of fuel and oxygen (usually from air) to sustain the chemical reaction, whereas in a battery the chemical energy comes from chemicals already present in the battery. Fuel cells can produce electricity continuously for as long as fuel and oxygen are supplied.

-Wikipedia

Energy comes in many forms. Plants and the fuels we get underground have CHEMICAL ENERGY which can be changed into heat, light, and electrical energy. We change the different forms of energy into forms that we can use to cook our food and to give us warmth and light.

It gives us a ready supply of the energy we need, we store energy in its many forms. How do we do this? How do we get the energy stored in its many forms from the Earth?

Using Stored Energy from the Sun

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The plants make their foods from the soil, water, and air with the aid of sunlight. Animals and man eat plants for energy. In effect, all energy sources we have known have STORED FROM THE SUN. 

When we go to the office, we do not have to walk. We can take a jeepney, bus, or tricycle. To visit a relative in another island nearby, we need not paddle a boat now. We can use a motorboat. If we want to go from Manila to Davao, we can be there in about two hours. HOW CAN WE TRAVEL SO FAST? By taking a jet plane. Most farmers use to get up very early to till the soil with the help of a carabao before the sun rises. Now, tractors are used to plow the fields.

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In places without electricity, the people prepare matches, candles, kerosene lamps before it gets dark. In other places, turning on a switch produces lights. A lot of wood and smoke goes into cooking food in rural areas. But compact, smokeless stoves that cook in a matter of minutes are mostly available in urban areas. There are many other convenient devices that use the fuels we have known for sure.

Man can now use machines to change stored energy in fuels into forms he can use. To run cars, jeepneys, and tractors, gasoline or diesel fuel is used. For cooking, LIQUEFIED PETROLEUM GAS (LPG) or electricity can be used. To light homes, fuel energy from many sources is changed into electrical energy. Electrical energy is also changed into light energy in a light bulb.

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