All flashcards topics

Fuels, climate and alternativesIB MYP Sciences: Flashcards

What these 14 flashcards ask

  • What is the greenhouse effect?
  • Name two greenhouse gases.
  • What would Earth's average temperature be without the greenhouse effect?
  • What is the enhanced greenhouse effect?
  • Give two sources of carbon dioxide from human activity.
  • Give two sources of methane.
  • What is a renewable fuel?
  • What is a biofuel?
  • Why are biofuels roughly carbon neutral?
  • What is the only product when hydrogen reacts with oxygen?
  • Give one problem with hydrogen as a fuel.
  • Give one problem with biofuels.
  • Which releases more energy per kilogram, hydrogen or petrol?
  • What should an evaluation answer always end with?

Exam questions on Fuels, climate and alternatives

  1. A geography class in Auckland reads a climate report. It says that Earth's average surface temperature is about 15 °C, but without an atmosphere it would be about -18 °C. Some gases in the atmosphere absorb heat radiated from Earth's surface. The carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has risen from about 280 parts per million before 1800 to over 420 parts per million today.
    Explain how greenhouse gases keep Earth's surface warmer than it would be without an atmosphere.2 marks
  2. A bus company in São Paulo is considering replacing its diesel buses with buses that run on bioethanol, a biofuel made by fermenting sugar cane, or with hydrogen fuel-cell buses.
    Suggest one advantage and one disadvantage of using hydrogen as a fuel for buses.2 marks
  3. Arjun, a student in Chennai, compares the energy released by three fuels: ethanol (a biofuel), biodiesel and kerosene. For each fuel, he burns exactly 1.0 g in a spirit burner under a metal can containing 200 cm³ of water and measures the rise in temperature of the water. The temperature rose by 12 °C for ethanol, by 18 °C for biodiesel and by 24 °C for kerosene. He tested each fuel once and concludes that kerosene is the best fuel.
    Identify the independent variable and the dependent variable, and name two variables that Arjun must control.3 marks
See the full worksheet

Written by the Exaim team, led by Shaun Daswani (Head of Upper Secondary, Improve ME Institute; MSc Financial Mathematics, Imperial College London; BSc, UCL) and Jason Daswani (operational lead, Improve ME Institute; LSE).