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Answer: Cell phone chargers are known as “energy vampires,” because they draw a lot of energy by being plugged in when phones are already charged or not even connected to them. In fact, only 5% of the power drawn by a cell phone charger is used to charge the phone. The other 95% is wasted when it is left plugged into the wall! To stop this energy waste, get yourself (and your family) in the habit of unplugging all chargers-including iPod chargers-when not in use.

Answer: An electromagnet is a magnet in which the magnetic field is produced by a flow of electric current. It consists of a coil of copper wire wrapped around an iron core. You can change (or stop) the strength of an electromagnet by adjusting the amount of electricity flowing through it.

Answer: Trees planted on the south and west sides of your home will keep your house cooler in the summer because the shade they provide screens the sun’s rays from hitting your house and heating it up. This means you won’t have to make your air conditioning work quite so hard, thus saving energy.

Answer: Electricity isn't exactly created with atoms. It's the movement of electrons between atoms that generates electricity. In power plants various energy sources (such as fossil fuels, wind, or hydropower) are used to turn turbines. The turbines spin electromagnets that are surrounded by heavy coils of copper wire. The moving magnets cause the electrons in the copper wire to move from atom to atom, and this is what creates electricity.

Answer: Shoes hanging on a power line don’t get burned for the same reason that birds standing on a power line don’t get shocked: they don’t give electricity a path to the ground, so electricity stays in the line and does not go through them. But if the shoes were to touch a power line and a power pole at the same time, they would provide a path to the ground and would get blasted with electric current. It wouldn’t be pretty!

By the way, if you ever see someone throwing shoes up onto a line, tell them to stop! The shoes can damage the power line, or someone trying to get the shoes down could be seriously shocked or even killed.

Answer: Yes! Manure can be made into a gas containing methane. (Methane is the same energy-rich gas found in natural gas.) Certain types of bacteria emit this gas as they consume manure collected in special air-free tanks. The mixture of gases produced in this way, called biogas, can then be used in some modified car engines instead of gasoline, or burned in a boiler to generate heat or electricity.

Answer: Just like manure, other types of organic waste emit methane as they decompose—or rot—in the landfill. Landfills can collect and treat the methane and then sell it as a commercial fuel, or they can burn it to generate steam and electricity. Today, there are almost 400 gas energy landfill projects operating in the United States.

Answer: One lightning strike can carry up to 30 million volts—as much electricity as 2.5 million car batteries.

Answer: Replacing one incandescent light bulb with an energy-saving compact fluorescent bulb prevents about 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted to the atmosphere from power plants, and saves about $67 dollars in energy costs over the bulb’s lifetime.

Answer: Ben Franklin’s famous key did give off an electric spark. But lucky for Franklin, the kite was just drawing small electrical charges from the air. If the kite had been struck by lightning, Franklin could have been killed!