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Answer: Yes! There are about 6,450 significant electrical shock injuries per year in the United States, which is almost 18 per day! And about 240 people die each year from electrical shock at work. You can learn to stay safe around electricity and prevent electrical shock by studying this website.

Answer: Don't try to take them down yourself—you could be seriously hurt or even killed if you touch the shoes or the line they are on. Instead, call your local electrical utility to ask if they can take them down.

Answer: If someone has been shocked, there's a chance they are still in contact with the source of the electricity. Do NOT touch them or anything they are touching—if you do that you could become part of electricity's path and be shocked or even killed. Warn others to stay back too. Quickly call 911 for help, and tell them it is an electrical accident. When you are sure the victim is not in contact with the source of the electricity, ask an adult to give first aid for electrical injury. This may include CPR. Don't touch burns, break blisters, or remove burned clothing. Electrical shock may cause burns inside the body as well, so be sure the person is taken to a doctor immediately.

Answer: You are correct to wonder about the safety of your gas stove flame. However it is not its heat that is potentially unsafe. A stovetop flame is unsafe when flammable objects—like papers, a dishcloth, or toys—are left nearby, because they could catch on fire. To prevent this happening, keep flammable items well away from the stove, and never allow the flame to be bigger than the size of the pot or pan that is cooking on it.

Answer: In power plants various energy sources are used to turn turbines. The turbines turn 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, generating electricity. To learn more, please visit our Energy Classroom at http://www.energyclassroom.com.

Answer: Yes! When you recycle, you save energy. That's because making new products from recycled materials requires only about a quarter of the energy that is needed to make the same products from raw materials. Reusing products saves even more energy. When you reuse existing products, you avoid buying new ones, thus saving the energy that would otherwise be used for new product manufacturing and transportation.

We can save a lot of energy by rethinking the way we make things in our society. Reusing and recycling are a key part of that thinking. If products are used, reused, and then recycled, we reduce both the need for raw materials and all the energy it takes to transform those materials into the products we buy.

Answer: The answer to this question depends on which form of energy you are referring to. For example, today we know that heat is a form of energy that comes from the movement of molecules. However, it was once thought to be a substance that was contained in objects and could flow between them. People called this substance "caloric fluid." It wasn't until the mid-1800s that an English physicist named James Prescott Joule proved that heat is actually a form of energy. People came to understand other types of energy in different ways, at different times. You can learn more about these discoveries by researching each of these forms of energy: kinetic, potential, electrical, nuclear, and chemical.

Answer: Natural gas is called "natural" because when this type of gas was first discovered, it could be used directly from the ground in its natural state, without any processing. Today, gas utilities process natural gas by removing water, sand, and other compounds so that when the gas is delivered to your home it will burn as cleanly and efficiently as possible. And, in its natural state, gas has no odor so that's why companies like Xcel Energy add a harmless, but stinky chemical to it; the odor helps people smell a leak that otherwise, in the gas's natural state, doesn't smell.

Answer: To answer this question, we have to add up all the energy people use from different sources. This is difficult to do because each energy source is measured in a different unit. For example, electricity is measured in kilowatt-hours, natural gas is measured in cubic feet, and gasoline is measured in gallons. One way to add up different energy sources is to convert them all to one common unit of measurement called BTUs, or British Thermal Units. (A BTU is equal to the amount of heat required to raise one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit.) When we do this, we can determine that on average, each person in the United States uses about 300 million BTUs per year. And all of us together use about 95 quadrillion BTUs per year. That's a lot of energy!

Answer: Stored energy (also called “potential energy”) is the energy in matter due to its position or the arrangement of its parts. For example, a coconut hanging on a palm tree has stored energy because of its position suspended in the air. When the coconut drops from the tree and falls to the ground, its potential energy is converted into energy in motion (also called “kinetic energy”). Another example that illustrates the difference between these two types of energy is a twisted-up rubber band used to fly a toy airplane. The rubber band contains potential energy that is converted into kinetic energy when it untwists and turns the propeller.