Gee a party!
The decision was made to avoid any contrivance that can be construed as an attempt to, "make learning fun". Copacetic.
Today's item to ponder is housing. Are homes constructed as they are because it is assumed that there will be central heating, and so homes don't have to be engineered to be efficient at holding warm or cool air indoors? In other words, if there wasn't natural gas or oil, would homes be engineered differently? Perhaps they would be circular and a network of water filled pipes would be installed 'neath floors so that warmth would emanate from them slowly but continuously, using less energy to make the inhabitants warm than employing a giant fan to blow dry air that makes some parts of the room hot and other parts cold. Natural gas might be used along with parabolic solar collectors during the day to heat the water, which would release heat during the night thanks to water having a high specific heat.
One item that is always left off the list of possible solutions to the problem of energy is, "stop living like pigs".
Today's item to ponder is housing. Are homes constructed as they are because it is assumed that there will be central heating, and so homes don't have to be engineered to be efficient at holding warm or cool air indoors? In other words, if there wasn't natural gas or oil, would homes be engineered differently? Perhaps they would be circular and a network of water filled pipes would be installed 'neath floors so that warmth would emanate from them slowly but continuously, using less energy to make the inhabitants warm than employing a giant fan to blow dry air that makes some parts of the room hot and other parts cold. Natural gas might be used along with parabolic solar collectors during the day to heat the water, which would release heat during the night thanks to water having a high specific heat.
One item that is always left off the list of possible solutions to the problem of energy is, "stop living like pigs".