February 9, 2003 ME 419/519 - Study Guide for First Exam of Feb. 11, 2003

1. Textbook material to be covered is from Chapters 1 and 2 and Chapter 3 through page 33 of the F &G text, and Sections 1, 2 and 3 of the ISU-JFK text. Pay special attention to the unit conversion table in the front of the ISU-JFK text.

2. Areas of special emphasis:

•          Prices of energy, especially petroleum on the world market

•          Natural Gas prices today

•          Why nuclear energy appeared so attractive at the time of its discovery, compared to fossil fuel energy - i.e 200 million eV per fission compared to 4.2 eV for buring of a carbon atom.

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•          Energy use in various countries throughout the world - compare to USA

•          Carbon dioxide emissions by various countries throughout the world - compare to USA

•          Productivity (dollar of productivity) in terms of energy use and carbon dioxide emissions, around the world.

•          Basic Economic Formulae - in particular the amortization formula for uniform mortgage payments

•          Application of mortgage formula to the capital cost component of a product, such as electricity (cents/kWh)

•          The cost of running an engineering business. (Page 118 and 119 of ISU-JFK text)

•          Longevity of a resource, based on King Hubbert Theory, of initial exponential growth and modification as one approaches mid-range and closer to the utilization of the entire resource.

            Note, the USA problem was worked, in which it was found that the total resource was in the range of 240 to 280 billion barrels, and we have already used of 75% of this. The world resource problem was presented in class, showing that only about 40% of the total resource of about 2500 to 3000 billion barrels has been used to date.

•          Drilling for oil and gas - how it is done. Two types of drill rigs. The challenges of using long drill pipe and getting it to drill straight, vertical holes. The pressures generated at the well head for an oil well and for a gas well.

•          Converting potential energy to kinetic energy and then to electric energy. The unit of acre feet = one acre (43560 sq. ft) by one foot depth.

•          Ethanol as a fuel additive. How the ethanol is produced. Why it should be used. The false engineering conclusions concerning its energy benefits.

•          The Rankin Cycle - calculating theoretical efficiency (that which assumes reversible processes and no energy losses in machinery).

•          The issue of important minerals and the USA’s dependence on foreign sources