Lesson 3.4: Everyday Use of Hydrocarbons

Throughout history, names have been given to different periods due to a major commodity used during that period. You are currently living in the Hydrocarbon Age.

• Read pages 144 to 146 of the textbook, ending at “Comparing Combustion Reactions”.  Answer the questions as you encounter them.
  
  Check your answers with those in the “Practice Answers” in the online course.

Combustion reactions use oxygen and produce carbon dioxide. This production of carbon dioxide is having a profound effect on the environment.

• Read pages 146 to 148 of the textbook. Start at “Comparing Combustion Reactions” and end at the “Voluntarily Reducing Hydrocarbon Consumption” activity. Answer the questions as you encounter them.
  
  Check your answers with those in the “Practice Answers” in the online course.

What can you do to reduce the use of gasoline? If your family reduces its gasoline use by 10%, that may not seem very significant. However, when multiplied by the amount of gasoline used in one community or one province, the reduction will be very significant.

 
Plastics are produced from hydrocarbons. Many short, unsaturated hydrocarbon molecules are joined together to form long carbon chains known as plastics. This process is called polymerization, and the resulting product is a polymer.

• Read pages 149 to 151 of the textbook, ending at “3.4 Summary”. Answer the questions as you encounter them. 
  
  Check your answers with those in the “Practice Answers” in the online course. 
  
  
  
• Read “3.4 Summary” on page 151 of the textbook. Then, complete “3.4 Questions”. 
  
  Check your answers with those in the “Practice Answers” in the online course.

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Go to Assignment 3.4: Everyday Use of Hydrocarbons.