Q1.
Can you think of more examples where we use the Sun, the wind or the flowing water?
Answer
Yes — many. Here is a list you can copy and add to from your own village or town.
| Source | How we use it |
|---|---|
| The Sun | Drying clothes, papads, grain, chillies and mango slices |
| Cooking in a solar cooker | |
| Heating water in a solar water heater on the roof | |
| Making electricity with solar panels — on a roof, a street light, a school | |
| Lighting our rooms in the daytime, so no bulb is needed | |
| Helping plants make their food, and making salt in salt pans | |
| The wind | Flying kites, and turning a paper pinwheel |
| Winnowing — dropping grain in the breeze so the light husk blows away | |
| Sailing boats and fishing boats with sails | |
| Windmills that make electricity, and wind pumps that draw up water | |
| Cooling us on a hot day, and drying clothes faster on the line | |
| Flowing water | Gharaats — hill watermills that grind grain |
| Hydro power stations at dams that make electricity for cities | |
| Canal water flowing by itself into the fields | |
| Rafts and boats carried downstream by the current |
What is common to all of them: not one of these needs a plug, a cylinder or a tank of petrol. The Sun rises again tomorrow, the wind blows again, and the river keeps flowing. These sources come back on their own — which is why they are so valuable.
Look at the picture on page 126. It shows all three in one place: clothes drying and a solar cooker cooking (Sun); a sailboat, a kite and a haystack in the breeze (wind); a water wheel lifting water and a watermill turning (flowing water).