Science Help!!!!!?

Question

How could i test to see if burning coal produces air pollution?? Like what experiment could i do? Procedure, materials, etc?? Best answer gets points, thanks!

Answer 1

well when you burn fossil fuels ( coal ) , it naturally releases greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide. because there is naturally cardon dioxide in our atmosphere, it isnt really considered pollution until you're talking about massive amounts of it( like the amounts that humans put into the air to fuel our cars ), it's considered pollution.

a good example of the effects of burning coal would be thinking about the pieces people put in their grills. think about why they use the coal instead of....grass, plastic, etc. you could probably do that as an experiment.

another thing you could do is burn a piece of coal yourself, trap some of the smoke/gasses coming out of the burning piece, and compare that to the normal air you breathe. ( you can compare colors, or concentration of certain chemicals in the gasses)

other than that, i also suggest you do a "computer-resourced" experiment by finding pictures of cities and their air quality from 50 years ago, to the ones now. a good city to focus on would be Los Angelos considering how much smog and pollution is there today. simple graphs on the internet will prove how much the pollution has gone up.

also remember to focus on what coal really is, and what it's made out of. that can be another part of your experiment; break down the coal, and show why it pollutes the air when it is burned, and how it happens.