The Atomic Puzzler!

Dr. Egghead's canine friend Gamma has been thinking about U.S. oil consumption a lot lately. Can you help him answer these questions? [Note: To solve some of these problems, you will have to use exponents (GASP!). But fear not, Dr. Egghead is here to explain all. To figure out an amount of growth, simply take the rate of growth and raise it to the power of the number of years in the problem. If there is no growth, the growth rate is 1. If there is change, the rate is 1 +/- the rate of change. So, say you have 1000 widgets and the number of widgets grows at a rate of 5% per year for the next 10 years. The number of widgets in 10 years will be: 1000 x (1.05)10 = 1628 (rounded). Likewise, if the number of widgets decreases at a rate of 5% per year for the next 10 years, the number of widgets in 10 years will be: 1000 x (0.95)10 = 599 (rounded). For more help on exponents, check out IEER’s online technical classroom on our web site at http://www.ieer.org/clssroom/scinote.html.] Assuming that, in the year 2000, the United States was consuming 20 million (2.0 x 107) barrels per day of petroleum. Also assume that this amount is expected to grow at 2% per year for at least 30 years. What will the daily oil consumption of the United States be in: 2010? 2020? 2030? One way to measure the energy productivity of the United States is to determine the amount of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) generated (measured in dollars) per amount of energy consumed (measured in British Thermal Units, or Btu). The higher this ratio, thinking goes, the more productive the economy in relation to energy because there is more wealth being generated per unit of energy that is consumed. a. If the United States in the year 2000 was consuming 99 quadrillion Btu of energy, and GDP then was 10 trillion (10,000 billion) dollars, what was the energy productivity of the United States in that year in billion dollars of GDP per quadrillion Btu? b. What would the energy productivity of the United States be, in billion dollars of GDP per quadrillion Btu, in 2030 if since 2000 energy consumption grew at 2% per year while the GDP grew at 1.5% per year? c. What would the energy productivity of the U.S. be in 2030 if since 2000 energy consumption increased by 1% per year while the GDP grew at 1.5% per year? In 1999, the world’s total energy consumption was approximately 380 quadrillion Btu. The U.S. total energy consumption was approximately 97 quadrillion Btu. What percentage of the world’s total energy consumption took place in the United States in 1999? From which of the following countries does the United States NOT import any oil? Saudi Arabia Canada Mexico Iraq Iran True or False: Over 60% of the world’s proven oil reserves are located in the Middle East. Bonus question (answer not found in this issue): Name the 11 countries that are members of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). Send us your completed puzzler via fax (1-301-270-3029), e-mail (ieer@ieer.org), or post (IEER, 6935 Laurel Ave., Suite 204, Takoma Park, Maryland, 20912, USA), postmarked by March 27, 2002. IEER will award a maximum of 25 prizes of $10 each to people who send in a completed puzzler (by the deadline), right or wrong. One $25 prize will be awarded for a correct entry, to be drawn at random if more than one correct puzzler is submitted. International readers submitting answers will, in lieu of a cash prize (due to exchange rates), receive a copy of IEER’s newest report, Securing the Energy Future of the United States: Oil, Nuclear, and Electricity Vulnerabilities and a post-September 11, 2001 Roadmap for Action, signed by the author.