3. Identify four (4) air pollutants that come out of the tailpipe when a car burns gasoline?

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1 Name: ENVR 1401 EXERCISE Lab 12: Part 1I What Are You Breathing? SAFETY CONCERNS: Students should be alert to traffic within the parking lot. Be safe in looking around so that you do not place yourself at risk. Use the Buddy System to watch out for safety of other members of your lab group. 1. Many chemicals are stored in the science labs at Collin College. Some of those chemicals are reactive and many are flammable. In order to make sure that those chemicals are stored safely, just in case they are spilled or their container becomes damaged, we built special chemical storage rooms. What type of pressure should be maintained in those rooms? NEGATIVE PRESSURE POSITIVE PRESSURE Why? 2. In your own words, explain what negative air pressure means: 3. Identify four (4) air pollutants that come out of the tailpipe when a car burns gasoline? 4. Describe how and explain why the composition or chemical makeup of our air has changed since the car was invented?

2 TCEQ Tie-in: The green car seems to be all the rage in America, achieving lofty praise while, at the same time, engendering stark criticism. For example, the Toyota Prius, the first gas-electric hybrid automobile to achieve mainstream attention, has been designated a plaything of eco-snobs and yet many laud its innovations such as a regenerative braking systems which recharges the batteries and cuts supply from its gasoline reservoir, resulting in minimal emissions. New entries into the green market include Nissan s Leaf, which claims an impressive 106 miles per gallon in the city, to the SMART car, oft-mocked as toys, but with mpg nearing one-hundred in coupes or convertibles. Detractors claim that such achievements in engine efficiency are something of a misconception as the electricity necessary to power the batteries usually comes from power plants subsisting on fossil fuels and that aside from short distance driving, the current models are not robust enough to deal with big trips as recharging stations may not be accessible. In a country the size of America, hybrid cars which work in close-packed Europe and Asia would be inadequate. Coincident with the wide range of views regarding the usefulness of such cars are the reasons that these cars are purchased. Wide differences surround even those individuals that consider these cars viable options and not all of the reasons presented involve the purchaser being a friend of the environment. Some buy these cars as tax write-offs, making use of abundant tax incentives, some buy these cars because they can become the Jones, distinguishing themselves from their neighbors as a form of eco-snobbery, and still others may be seen as the truly eco-conscious consumers. Whatever reason people choose to buy these eco-friendly cars, as many if not more do not buy these cars solely because of disbelief in the true cost-savings and greenness inherent to them. Some claim the extra cost of these vehicles is not meted out by savings in gasoline, some claim the cars are underpowered, others claim the minimal weight of the vehicle, necessary for high fuel economy, results in a decrease in overall safety, and still others do not buy them simply because they perceive these vehicles as an affront to what makes them individuals. Simply put, there is a surprising amount of confusion, distrust, and anger surrounding this market. Much of this comes from perception, and, as we have seen in previous labs, perception is a powerful tool, regardless of its veracity. As a TCEQ employee, you are tasked with exploring knowledge and bias as pertains to hybrid cars in America. The way this will be accomplished is doing a common man test, an exercise that hybrid car manufacturers and their supporters put forth to the world as a way of comparing the qualities of their vehicles with the status quo. Their assertion is that the average individual could do this exercise and be equipped to make an educated decision about the usefulness and value of their vehicles. Your job is to do this test and then answer some questions about the veridicality of such an experiment, that is, does the test give you a true sense of their vehicles? Is the experiment biased? Do they present any negative information about their own vehicles? The value of you doing this test, is it prepares you for work with the public and makes you aware of all that games that are played in influencing public perception. This equips you so that when you are dealing with community action groups, private enterprises, and even other government institutions, you can evaluate what is not said and take that into account when making decisions. The Exercise: As a workgroup, you will be assigned a parking lot on campus. At each parking lot count and record each car and the make, model, and engine size (e.g., Ford, Escape, 2.5L automatic). If you don t know the engine size, make an educated guess. Record your data on the following table. DO NOT include any vehicle owned by any of your lab partners!!

3 Vehicle Tailpipe Tally Make & Year Model Engine Size Using the computer, go to Input the data for each vehicle (assume 12,000 miles per year and $2.50 per gallon of gasoline) and record the following information (annual fuel consumption, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and hydrocarbons). In order for the calculator to work you will need to compare each vehicle to a hybrid car (you can pick any car!). An example is shown on the next page.

4 For this step, I chose the first option on the right for each drop-down box and then clicked next. For this step, I manually entered 12,000 and $2.5, before clicking next. My result is at the left. For the record, a Chevy Aveo was the second car I ever owned. It looked like a roller skate and, having purchased it from my sisterin-law, it was adorned with faerie decals and the Rolling Stones tongue, but it got EXCELLENT gas mileage, better on the highway than listed here. 6. Record all your data in a chart like the one given below and Microsoft Excel. Record only numbers in the table. Units are given in the column labels.

5 7. Next, combine all the data using Excel to calculate a parking lot sample mean for annual fuel consumption, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and hydrocarbons. 8. Using Excel and the mean for each category to calculate the total amount, per category contributed or consumed by: a. Collin College (use 18,000 vehicles for your campus) b. All the registered vehicles in your city/county (approximately 741,000 as of fiscal year 2009). c. All the registered vehicles in your state (20.1 million as of fiscal year 2007) ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/pio/pfacts/pf_2007.pdf 9. What about your contribution to pollution? Add to your Excel chart. a. What are the make, model, and engine size of your car? b. How much fuel does it consume and how much pollution does it generate? c. What is the percent difference between your car and the parking lot means determined in question 8? The Excel spreadsheet must be submitted as part of your assignment. The basic table can be used by each person in the group and will differ only by question Take the DRIVE SMART Challenge at: and record the specific tips and the results for your vehicle in the following table. Use the flash version if it works, else, the non-flash version.

6 11. Discuss the significance of following these Tips in terms of air quality: 12. Discuss the significance of the overall test. Do the numbers of fuel consumption and primary air pollutant production seem significant? By what could you gauge significance? TCEQ Wrap-up: 12. Do you think this exercise was biased? Why or why not? 13. Were there misleading statements or statements made that were designed to make a change in personal views by doing this test? That is, what (if any) generalities could you draw from tests like these, exercises to educate the common man and make them informed, that could be misleading?