Who uses most energy?

In general, more developed countries (such as Britain, the rest of Europe, the United States and Canada) use more energy per person than less developed ones (such as India and many countries in Africa).

As well as this increased use of energy, the developed countries also use a greater proportion of their energy for industrial and transportation needs. The homes in a developing country might consume 75% of the country's total energy requirements. The rest being used for industry, transport, power generation, etc. For a developed country, this proportion is more likely to be the other way round (eg 25% domestic use).

Force, work and energy

We measure energy in joules. If you pulled a brick up to the top of a house on a pulley, around 50 joules of energy would have been transferred from your body's reserves to the brick. This energy might be transferred again if the brick were to fall into a bucket of water. In this case, the energy transfer shows up as an increase in the temperature of the water. After all this activity, every joule of energy can be accounted for and might do further work if the circumstances were right. Energy is never 'used up', even though the fuels are.

When an energy transfer such as raising the brick by pulling on a rope is carried out (by moving a force through a distance) we can calculate the energy transfer (work done).

energy transfer = force x distance moved by force