Chemicals In The Environment 1.1

Question 1

All living things are formed or depend on what to survive?

Answer 1

Chemicals

Question 2

All chemical compounds are made up of what?

Answer 2

Elements

Question 3

Elements are _____ __________ that cannot be ______ __________ into other substances.

Answer 3

pure substances
broken down

Question 4

What is nitrogen fixation?

Answer 4

The process of changing free nitrogen so that the nitrogen atoms can combine with other elements to form compounds that organisms can use.

Question 5

A pro and a con of CO2 release?

Answer 5

Pro: CO2+water are needed by plants to produce food
Con: CO2 contributes to the Greenhouse Effect

Question 6

What is pollution? Example of?

Answer 6

Any change in the environment that produces a condition that is harmful to living things. For example, smog caused by vehicle exhaust emissions is pollution because it makes it hard for people and other animals to breathe. Forest fires produce similar chemical pollution.

Question 7

What is the nitrogen cycle?

Answer 7

Nitrogen fixation happens in plants, then animals eat the plants. Their bodies use the nitrogen in the compounds to make more complex substances, such as proteins.
Decomposers break down these large nitrogen-containing molecules in dead organisms and animal waste into simpler nitrogen compounds in the soil.
Lightning converts gas so it can combine to form usable compounds.
This nitrogen is released back into the air as free nitrogen, and the cycle begins again.

Question 8

What is cellular respiration

Answer 8

*Is a natural process
*Give your body food as “fuel” and air rich in oxygen, to give you energy, for the bodies processes.
*Produces CO2 as a product

Question 9

What is an issue?

Answer 9

Any subject of importance about which people have strong, conflicting points of view.

Question 10

What is a fertilizer? Example of?

Answer 10

A fertilizer is a substance that enriches soil so that plants will grow better.
For example, potassium is essential to plant growth. If a soil is low in potassium, plants cannot grow well in it. The soil must be enriched by adding a potassium fertilizer.

Question 11

What is a pest?

Answer 11

An organism that harms people, crops, or structures.

Question 12

What are pesticides?

Answer 12

Pesticides are chemicals used to kill pests.

Question 13

What are herbicides?

Answer 13

Kill or control weeds.

Question 14

What are insecticides?

Answer 14

Kill or control insects.

Question 15

What are fungicides?

Answer 15

Kill fungi.

Question 16

Fertilizers are described by the major nutrient elements they contain, and these elements are?

Answer 16

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

Question 17

The three numbers 15–30–15 on the label
indicate that this fertilizer contains what?

Answer 17

15% nitrogen compounds, 30% phosphorus compounds, and 15% potassium compounds.

Question 18

Some fertilizers have a fourth number and the letter “S” on the label to indicate that they
contain _______ as a major ingredient.

Answer 18

sulfur

Question 19

Fertilizers may come from what?

Answer 19

Natural sources or synthetic chemicals.

Question 20

Too much _______ may even damage the crop and organisms it’s supposed to help.

Answer 20

fertilizer

Question 21

If fertilizer enters ponds, streams, lakes, or rivers, it may damage those ecosystems by doing what?

Answer 21

Changing concentration of chemicals.

Question 22

A pesticide that kills both pest and non-pest
species is what?

Answer 22

Some pesticides are not selective—they

Question 23

Chemicals may be introduced into the environment when we dispose of what?

Answer 23

Solid waste or wastewater.

Question 24

Solid waste includes what? Some solid waste can be reused or recycled, but most of it is placed where?

Answer 24

The garbage that is collected from households, industrial plants, commercial buildings, institutions, and construction and demolition sites. It includes large items, such as machinery, all the way down to small items, such as the caps on plastic drink bottles.
Landfill sites

Question 25

Some hazardous wastes are burned in special plants called what. What do they do and what can they contribute to?

Answer 25

Incinerators. They burn at very high temperatures. Emissions from incinerators may contribute to air pollution.

Question 26

Sanitary landfill sites are specially built to prevent ______ ________ from moving into the soil.

Answer 26

waste chemicals

Question 27

Sanitary landfills are what?

Answer 27

They use plastic liners and compacted clay to prevent these solutions (As rainwater or groundwater moves through solid waste, it can dissolve or corrode some items.) from entering the soil and the groundwater.

Question 28

What is sewage?

Answer 28

Wastewater containing dissolved and undissolved materials from your kitchen, bathroom, and laundry.

Question 29

Sewage moves through pipes into a septic tank in rural areas or to a sewage treatment plant in towns and cities. What is a septic tank?

Answer 29

An underground container where bacteria break down the organic materials before they are moved out to the soil.

Question 30

A sewage treatment plant does what?

Answer 30

Treats wastes from homes, businesses, industries, and institutions.

Question 31

What is effluent?

Answer 31

Treated wastewater and is released into rivers or lakes.

Question 32

If the municipal sewage system cannot handle a large quantity of rain water from street drains, that water may go directly into a river or lake through large pipes called what?

Answer 32

storm sewers

Question 33

What are fossil fuels?

Answer 33

Coal, oil, and natural gas are called fossil fuels because they formed from dead plants and animals.

Question 34

What are hydrocarbons?

Answer 34

They are called hydrocarbons because they are mainly made up of the elements hydrogen and carbon.

Question 35

When fossil fuels are burned in homes, vehicles, and industrial plants, they produce what?

Answer 35

Large amounts of carbon dioxide and water vapour.

Question 36

The general reaction equation for this (burned fossil fuels) combustion reaction is:

Answer 36

Hydrocarbon + oxygen → carbon dioxide + water + energy

Question 37

The equations below show what happens in the combustion of methane (in natural gas) and propane.

Answer 37

CH4(g) + 2O2(g) → CO2(g) + 2H2O(g) methane + oxygen → carbon dioxide + water vapour + energy C3H8(g) + 5O2(g) → 3CO2(g) + 4H2O(g) propane + oxygen → carbon dioxide + water vapour + energy

Question 38

A common industrial process in Alberta is what?

Answer 38

Natural gas processing

Question 39

Natural gas is composed of compounds such as methane, ethane, propane, and butane. It also contains nitrogen gas, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, helium, and traces of metals such as mercury. Natural gas is processed to separate its components for different uses. Methane, propane, and butane are all derived from natural gas and are used primarily for heating. Ethane is used in plastics such as polyethylene. Natural gas is also processed to eliminate unwanted substances such as hydrogen sulfide, a poisonous chemical. Natural gas that contains hydrogen sulfide is called “sour” gas. If no hydrogen sulfide is present, the gas is considered “sweet.” The process for removing hydrogen sulfide produces sulfur dioxide gas and pure sulfur. Since the 1970s, natural gas processing plants in Alberta have been required by law to restrict their sulfur dioxide emissions. They now recover more than 99% of the pure sulfur for use in manufacturing sulfuric acid. Sulfuric acid is used in making fertilizers, steel, synthetic fibres, and paints.

Answer 40

*