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Solar Energy Essay

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It is interesting to note that when man was created, his needs were all around him. Some were obvious such as food and water, but other needs needed discovery like solar energy. Solar energy is the most ancient kind of energy known to man, however, man started researching it in the early 19th century.
It is unknown when people started using the sun for uses other than growing food. History records that Greeks used the sun when the Romans came to attack by holding hundreds of mirrors along the tops of their city walls. The sun reflected off the mirrors facing the sails of the Roman ships. The sails burst into flames and the Roman ships were destroyed. In 1839, Alexandre Edmond Becquerel explained how electricity can be generated from the sun. In 1866, a French scientist, Auguste Mouchot, was ordered by Napoleon III to devise ways of using the sun’s energy. He designed the first known solar cooker.
The sun is an enormous star compared to the Earth. The distance between the sun and the Earth is approximately 93 million miles and light from the sun takes about eight minutes and twenty seconds to travel the great distance. Scientists estimate that the sun is made up of about 70% hydrogen and 28% helium with traces of many other elements that make up the other 2%. The surface of the sun, also known as the photosphere, gives off energy in the form of heat and light. The interior of the sun is a region where the gases are dense and the temperatures are very high (up to 27 million

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