Energy comes in many forms
Energy is the ability to do work, and this word search gathers its many types. You'll track down the forms it takes — KINETIC energy of movement, POTENTIAL energy stored up, plus THERMAL, ELECTRIC and CHEMICAL energy — and the units we measure it in, the JOULE and the WATT.
Each puzzle pulls a fresh selection from the list, so the grid changes every time you play — gentle on Easy, and a Hard-mode challenge once the diagonals and backwards words appear.
Powering the planet
Where does our power come from? The sources are here. There's the RENEWABLE kind — SOLAR from SUNLIGHT on a PANEL, WIND spinning a TURBINE, HYDRO from water, GEOTHERMAL from the Earth, and BIOMASS from plants — and the FOSSIL FUEL and NUCLEAR sources too. It all adds up to the POWER and OUTPUT that runs our world, with HEAT and FUEL along the way.
Energy can't be made or lost
One of the most important rules in all of science is that energy can never be created or destroyed — it can only change from one form to another. The CHEMICAL energy stored in your breakfast becomes the KINETIC energy of you running about; the POTENTIAL energy of water held high behind a dam becomes electricity as it rushes down. Energy is always being passed along and transformed, never used up.
The big question for our future is how we generate ELECTRIC power. FOSSIL FUELs — coal, oil and gas — formed underground over millions of years, so there's a limited supply, and burning them adds to climate change. That's why the world is turning to RENEWABLE sources like SOLAR, WIND, HYDRO, GEOTHERMAL and BIOMASS, which won't run out, alongside NUCLEAR power. Whatever the source, the energy is measured in JOULEs, and the rate it's used in WATTs.
Great for an energy or environment topic
It pairs perfectly with a science lesson on energy and where power comes from — Easy mode keeps the grid small with no diagonals or reverse words. Play online, print a PDF pack, or use our Make Your Own tool to build a grid from your own energy words.