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3:10 PM

Math Times
Implies equations and unbiased reporting

Our Giant Carbon Footprint

How does a family reduce their electricity usage? Over the course of this past year, starting from the month of August to April, Nick Chen,(8 grade student) has been working on answering that daunting question. The answer that simple steps can be taken to minimize the waste of electricity, especially in the modern society where the use of electricity is essential to our everyday lives as we basically cannot live without it. Continuing with his familys already electricity-saving nature,Nick and his family constantly reminded each other to turn off their lights when leaving the room, unplugging chargers when not charging and turning off electrical outlets,and completely switching off their electrical appliances when not in use. The family also have cut down the use of unneeded decorative lights, increased the temperature of their air cons and have started to use more fans than air cons when possible. They also have agreed to take maximum 10 minute showers to conserve the water as well as the electricity which is used to heat the water. The family started out this project as 461 Kwh which was not as wasting as other households and quite a modest amount of electricity. The family continued to reduce the amount of electricity which they used to 421 Kwh.

THE LONG TERM EFFECT The enormous amount of electricity which people use daily is heaving a huge negative impact on the environment. As people use more electricity, more amounts of carbon dioxide will get released into air and cause the greenhouse eect. The green house eect will make a dome in the atmosphere which will not let the green house gases leave earth. The green house

gases warm up the earths temperature, Creating what is commonly known as Global Warming. Due to the global warming, the earths environment is rapidly changing and if it continues on in this rate, the humanitys fate will be uncertain. To prevent that, we all need to work our reduce our carbon footprint .

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PREDICTION

3:10 PM

How long will it take to reach 300Kwh?

A tted line has been drawn on the scatter graph. To nd out the equation for the tted line, I need to nd out the slope with the two points (3,445) and (6,429). 445-429 = 16 = - 5.3

3-6

-3

Next, we substitute the equation Y. MX +B with (3,445) 445 = -5.3(3) +B

445=-15.9+B B=445+15.9 B=460.9 The equation of the tted line is Y=-5.3x +460.9 To nd out how many months it would take to reach 300 Kwh, substitute y=300. 300=-5.3x+460.9 300-460.9=-5.3x -160.9=-5.3x x=30.358 It will take my family about 31 months to reach 300kwh of electric usage.

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