BICYCLES AS TRANSPORTATION: Commuting by bicycle has many potential benefits over driving a car. It burns calories (a motorized bicycle would burn fewer, but moderate-paced travel on a traditional human-powered bike can help you burn about 200 calories in 30 minutes). Several bicycles can fit inside the parking space of one car. Bicycles typically take less money to maintain than cars, and cause less wear on roads. The environmental impact is obviously lower and short trips can often take less time for cyclists, who are unlikely to be stopped in bumper to bumper traffic. Some people would even say it's fun.
BATTERY BASICS: Whenever one type of matter converts into another, as in a chemical reaction, one form of energy also changes into another. A battery has two ends, called terminals, one with a negative charge, and one with a positive charge. Electrons congregate on the negative terminal. Connect a wire between the two terminals, and the electrons will flow from the negative to the positive end as quickly as they can. Connecting the battery starts the flow of electrons, jumpstarting a series of chemical reactions inside the battery to create even more electrons.
The Materials Research Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.-USA, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the American Physical Society contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.
