Chapter 11

Question 1

What is a cottage industry?

Answer 1

Manufacturing based in homes rather than in factories, most common prior to the Industrial Revolution.

Question 2

What is animate power?

Answer 2

Power supplied by animals or by people themselves.

Question 3

What are biomass fuels?

Answer 3

This is burned directly or converted to charcoal, alcohol, or methane gas and usually from wood, plant material, and animal waste.

Question 4

What is a fossil fuel?

Answer 4

An energy source such as coal, petroleum, or natural gas that is formed from the residue of plants and animals buried millions of years ago.

Question 5

What are situation factors?

Answer 5

Involve transporting materials to and from a factory, where a firm seeks a location that minimizes the cost of transporting inputs to the factory and finished goods to customers.

Question 6

What are site factors?

Answer 6

Result from the unique characteristics of a location: labor, capital, land.

Question 7

What is a bulk-reducing industry?

Answer 7

An industry in which the inputs weigh more than the final products.

Ex: Mining.

Question 8

What is a bulk-gaining industry?

Answer 8

Makes something that gains volume or weight during production.

Ex: Beverage bottling.

Question 9

What is a break-of-bulk point?

Answer 9

A location where transfer among transportation modes is possible.

Question 10

What is just-in-time delivery?

Answer 10

Shipment of parts and materials to arrive at a factory moments before they are needed.

Question 11

What is a labor-intensive industry?

Answer 11

An industry in which wages and other compensation paid to employees constitute a high percentage of expenses.

Question 12

What is a proven reserve?

Answer 12

The supply of energy remaining in deposits that have been discovered.

Question 13

What is a potential reserve?

Answer 13

The supply in deposits that are undiscovered but thought to exist.

Question 14

What is fission?

Answer 14

A nuclear power plant produces electricity from energy released by splitting uranium atoms in a controlled environment.

Question 15

What is fusion?

Answer 15

The fusing of hydrogen atoms to form helium at high temperatures.

Question 16

What is nonrenewable energy?

Answer 16

Forms so slowly that for practical purposes they cannot be renewed.

Question 17

What is renewable energy?

Answer 17

Have an essentially unlimited supply and are not depleted when used by people.

Question 18

What is geothermal energy?

Answer 18

Energy from hot water or steam.

Question 19

What are passive solar energy systems?

Answer 19

Capture energy without using special devices.

Question 20

What are active solar energy systems?

Answer 20

Collect solar energy and convert it either to heat energy or to electricity.

Question 21

What is pollution?

Answer 21

Occurs when more waste is added than air, water, and land resources can handle.

Question 22

What is air pollution?

Answer 22

Concentration of trace substances at a greater level than occurs in average air.

Question 23

What is the greenhouse effect?

Answer 23

The increase in Earth’s temperature caused by carbon dioxide trapping some of the radiation emitted by the surface.

Question 24

What is ozone?

Answer 24

A gas that absorbs ultraviolet radiation in the stratosphere.

Question 25

What are chlorofluorocarbons?

Answer 25

Were once widely used as coolants in refrigerators and air conditioners, but are carried into the stratosphere and break down the ozone layer.

Question 26

What is acid deposition?

Answer 26

The accumulation of acids on Earth’s surface.

Question 27

What is acid precipitation?

Answer 27

The conversion of sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides to acids that return to Earth as rain, snow, or fog.

Question 28

What is photochemical smog?

Answer 28

When hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides in the presence of sunlight cause respiratory problems, eye stinging, and haze.

Question 29

What is nonconsumptive water usage?

Answer 29

Use of water that is returned to nature as a liquid.

Question 30

What is consumptive water usage?

Answer 30

Use of water that evaporates rather than being returned to nature as a liquid.

Question 31

What is biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)?

Answer 31

The amount of oxygen required by aquatic bacteria to decompose a given amount of organic waste.

Question 32

What is point source pollution?

Answer 32

Enters a body of water at a specific location.

Question 33

What is nonpoint source pollution?

Answer 33

Comes from a large, diffuse area.

Question 34

What is a sanitary landfill?

Answer 34

The most common place for disposal of solid waste in the United States.

Question 35

What is the new international division of labor?

Answer 35

The selective transfer of some jobs to developing countries.

Question 36

What is vertical integration?

Answer 36

A company controls all phases of a highly complex production process.

Question 37

What are maquiladoras?

Answer 37

Plants in Mexico near the US border.

Question 38

What is a right to work law?

Answer 38

Requires a factory to maintain an open shop and prohibits a closed shop, meaning that workers do not have to join a union when they begin work in the factory.

Question 39

What is Fordist production?

Answer 39

When factories traditionally assigned each worker one specific task to perform repeatedly.

Question 40

What is post-Fordist production?

Answer 40

Adoption by companies of flexible work rules, such as the allocation of workers to teams that perform a variety of tasks.

Question 41

What is recycling?

Answer 41

The separation, collection, processing, marketing, and reuse of unwanted material.

Question 42

What is remanufacturing?

Answer 42

The rebuilding of a product to specifications for the original manufactured products using a combination of reused, repaired, and new parts.