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Putting the Sun to Work Its a hot summer day, and you, your family, and friends decide to drive to the beach for a cookout. When you get to the beach, the sand and the rocks are so hot that they hurt your bare feet. You put on sneakers in a hurry. The water is so bright and shining in the sun that you can hardly look at it. While the charcoal (木炭) fire is starting to burn in the cookout stove, every one goes for a swim. The water feels good warm at the top, but cooler down around your toes. A little wind is blowing when you come out. The fire isnt quite ready for cooking yet, so you play tag or read. For lunch there are hot dog, corn, salad and rolls, sodas, fruit, and coffee for the adults. By the time the coffee water boils and the corn and hot dogs are cooked, all the bathing suits are dry. So are the towels spread out on the rocks, in the sun. Lunch is good. Just as you are finishing, it starts to rain so you pack up and run. But nobody minds the rain. It will cool things off. At the same time you were having fun at the beach, work was being done. Energy from the sun was doing work. Energy, in one form or another, does all the work in the world. Heat energy from the sun dried the towels. It heated the sand and the rocks, the water and the air. It even made the rain and the wind. Heat from the sun does small work and big work, all over the earth. | 
