Energy by the Numbers

Req 6 — Energy by the Numbers

6.
Prepare pie charts showing the following information, and explain to your counselor the important ideas each chart reveals. Tell where you got your information. Explain how cost affects the use of a nonrenewable energy resource and makes alternatives practical.

This requirement is really about patterns. A pie chart helps you compare parts of a whole quickly, but the chart matters only if you can explain what the slices mean. You are not just drawing circles. You are telling the story behind the data.

Use a reliable source, record where the data came from, and make sure your categories add up clearly. If exact categories differ a little from year to year or source to source, that is fine as long as you can explain your source honestly.

Requirement 6a: Main U.S. energy resources

6a.
Prepare pie charts showing the following information, and explain to your counselor the important ideas each chart reveals. Tell where you got your information. Explain how cost affects the use of a nonrenewable energy resource and makes alternatives practical. The energy resources that supply the United States with most of its energy.

This chart shows the big mix: petroleum, natural gas, coal, nuclear, renewables, and other categories depending on the source. Your key job is to notice which sources dominate and which ones are growing or shrinking.

A strong explanation points out that the United States uses a mixed energy system. No single source does everything. Different fuels are used because they fit different jobs, prices, and infrastructure.

Requirement 6b: Energy from other countries

6b.
Prepare pie charts showing the following information, and explain to your counselor the important ideas each chart reveals. Tell where you got your information. Explain how cost affects the use of a nonrenewable energy resource and makes alternatives practical. The share of energy resources used by the United States that comes from other countries.

This chart helps you talk about dependence, supply chains, and energy security. If a significant share comes from outside the country, world events, transportation routes, and prices can affect what Americans pay and use.

This does not mean imported energy is automatically bad. It means energy systems are connected to geography, trade, and politics.

Requirement 6c: Where energy is used

6c.
Prepare pie charts showing the following information, and explain to your counselor the important ideas each chart reveals. Tell where you got your information. Explain how cost affects the use of a nonrenewable energy resource and makes alternatives practical. The proportion of energy resources used by homes, businesses, industry, and transportation.

This chart is useful because it shows that energy use is spread across sectors. Homes matter, but so do factories, stores, offices, trucks, cars, trains, and many other systems. That keeps you from thinking all energy problems can be solved in just one place.

When you explain this chart, connect it to your own experience. Home habits matter, but transportation and industry often involve huge amounts of energy too.

Requirement 6d: Fuels used to generate electricity

6d.
Prepare pie charts showing the following information, and explain to your counselor the important ideas each chart reveals. Tell where you got your information. Explain how cost affects the use of a nonrenewable energy resource and makes alternatives practical. The fuels used to generate America’s electricity.

This chart is not exactly the same as total energy use. It focuses only on electricity generation. That is important because people often confuse the entire energy system with the electric grid.

For example, transportation may use a large share of total energy, but much of it comes from petroleum rather than directly from grid electricity. This chart helps you keep those ideas separate.

Requirement 6e: World energy reserves

6e.
Prepare pie charts showing the following information, and explain to your counselor the important ideas each chart reveals. Tell where you got your information. Explain how cost affects the use of a nonrenewable energy resource and makes alternatives practical. The world’s known and estimated primary energy resource reserves..

This chart helps you think long-term. Reserves tell part of the story about how much of a resource is known or estimated to exist, but they do not guarantee it will all be cheap, easy, or wise to use. Access, extraction difficulty, environmental impacts, and technology all matter.

How cost changes what is practical

A nonrenewable resource may still exist in large amounts, but if it becomes expensive to find, extract, process, or transport, alternatives start to look better. That is why cost is so important. High prices can make efficiency upgrades, renewable systems, or new technologies more attractive.

For example, if fuel prices rise, people may drive less, choose more efficient vehicles, improve insulation, or invest in different power sources. Alternatives do not become practical only because they are cleaner. They also become practical when the economics shift.

Explain each chart clearly

Use the same simple structure each time
  • What whole does the chart represent? U.S. energy, imported share, electricity generation, and so on.
  • What are the biggest slices? Name them.
  • What does that reveal? Dependence, diversity, concentration, growth, or risk.
  • Why does it matter? Connect the chart to cost, environment, reliability, or national choices.
EIA — Energy Explained A strong source for U.S. energy production, consumption, imports, electricity generation, and reserve-related background. Link: EIA — Energy Explained — https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/ EIA — Electricity Explained Helpful for charting fuels used to generate electricity and understanding how electricity differs from total energy use. Link: EIA — Electricity Explained — https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/

You have worked with energy data at a big-picture level. Next, you will choose five energy systems and compare how engineers are trying to make them produce more usable energy.