Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. Which resource is renewable on a human timescale?
Crude oil
Sunlight
Uranium ore
Coal
2. An island has steady winds and wants to generate electricity without importing fuel for routine operation. Which technology best fits that goal?
Natural-gas turbines
Diesel generators
Wind turbines
A coal-fired power station
3. A solar photovoltaic facility and a coal plant produce the same amount of electricity. What best explains why solar energy is renewable while coal is not?
Solar facilities require no manufactured materials, while coal plants require machinery.
Sunlight is continually supplied, while coal forms far more slowly than people consume it.
Coal cannot produce electricity unless it is mixed with solar energy.
Solar panels create new sunlight, while coal plants permanently destroy matter.
4. Under which condition can timber be managed as a renewable resource?
Every harvested tree is used completely, so no wood is discarded.
Trees regrow at least as quickly as they are harvested while the forest ecosystem is maintained.
Timber is transported using vehicles powered by renewable electricity.
Only mature trees are removed, regardless of the rate of replanting or regrowth.
5. When is plant-based biomass most reasonably treated as a renewable energy resource?
Whenever it is burned instead of being placed in a landfill
When it is transported over a shorter distance than coal
When the biological material is replaced through regrowth at a rate comparable to its use
Whenever it comes from a plant rather than an underground deposit
6. A city greatly increases the recycling of aluminum cans. How does this affect the classification and use of bauxite, the ore used to make new aluminum?
Bauxite becomes renewable because recycled cans form new ore deposits.
Bauxite becomes inexhaustible as long as some aluminum remains in circulation.
Recycling changes bauxite from a mineral resource into an energy resource.
Bauxite remains nonrenewable, but recycling can reduce the need to extract more of it.
7. A community uses heat from hot rocks beneath Earth’s surface to produce steam and electricity. Which resource is it using?
Biomass energy
Hydroelectric energy
Geothermal energy
Solar energy
8. Why is flowing water used for hydropower generally considered renewable?
The water cycle continually replenishes river flow through processes such as evaporation and precipitation.
Hydroelectric dams prevent water from leaving the local environment.
Water becomes a new chemical element after passing through a turbine.
Reservoirs remove the need to consider seasonal changes in water supply.
9. A remote clinic relies on solar panels. What addition would best allow it to use captured solar energy after sunset without switching to a nonrenewable fuel?
A battery storage system
A larger electrical transformer
A natural-gas generator
A deeper petroleum storage tank
10. What primarily determines whether a natural resource is considered renewable?
It can be converted directly into electricity.
It can be extracted from more than one location.
It produces no environmental effects when used.
It is replenished by natural processes on a timescale comparable to human use.
11. A power plant replaces natural gas combustion with wind turbines. What is the most direct change during electricity generation?
The plant begins using a fuel that forms more quickly underground.
The plant eliminates every environmental impact associated with electricity production.
The plant reduces its combustion of a finite fuel and its direct carbon dioxide emissions.
The plant converts natural gas into a resource that can be replenished by wind.
12. Why is uranium generally classified as nonrenewable even though nuclear power plants emit little carbon dioxide during operation?
Uranium can be used only in places with strong sunlight.
Nuclear reactors consume moving water rather than mineral fuel.
Uranium is created by burning fossil fuels inside a reactor.
Usable uranium comes from finite mineral deposits that are not replenished on a human timescale.
13. Which nonrenewable resource is the main raw material for gasoline and many conventional plastics?
Geothermal steam
Crude oil
Flowing freshwater
Harvested timber
14. Why is coal classified as a nonrenewable resource?
Its formation from ancient organic matter takes millions of years.
It forms whenever recently cut wood is compressed underground.
It can be burned only once before losing all stored energy.
Its deposits cannot be located with modern surveying methods.
15. Why is tidal energy classified as renewable?
Regular gravitational interactions continually produce tidal movement.
Ocean water is permanently consumed when it passes through a tidal turbine.
Tidal equipment converts seawater into a replacement for petroleum.
Tides are generated by finite mineral deposits beneath the seafloor.
16. Which list classifies all four resources correctly?
Renewable: coal and sunlight; nonrenewable: wind and petroleum
Renewable: natural gas and timber; nonrenewable: sunlight and uranium
Renewable: petroleum and geothermal heat; nonrenewable: wind and coal
Renewable: wind and sunlight; nonrenewable: coal and natural gas