Chapter 2

Article - http://www.howstuffworks.com/hybrid-car.htm

This article is base on the hybrid cars everyone is talking about these days. As we all know, a gas-power car (normal car) uses gas to run the car. Since the gas prices are increasing very fast, and the pollution gas cars are giving to the environment. Inventors invented the hybrid car. This kind of car uses a bit of gas, but gets most of its power from batteries. Everyone now might think, “What happens if the battery dies in the middle of driving, and get stuck in traffic?” Even for a hybrid car, it must meet a certain minimum requirements. It must at least be able to drive 300miles (482 km) between refueling the car. Also, it must be able to refuel quickly and easily, and keep up with traffics on the road. A hybrid car is made up of many different parts. It has a gasoline engine like any other cars you know, but the unique part of it in the hybrid is that the engine is smaller and uses advanced technologies to reduce emissions and increase efficiency. Another part of the hybrid car is the fuel tank, the energy storage device for the gasoline engine. Electric motor is a part of a hybrid that you won’t see on other cars often, it acts like a motor and a generator on a hybrid. A generator is another part of the hybrid; it acts similar to an electric motor, but its use to only produce electrical power. One of the best parts of a hybrid car is the batteries. Batteries are energy storage device for the electric motor and energy can be put into the batteries or withdraw from the batteries by the electric motor. Last but not least, transmissions like any other car on the road.

In chapter 2 we have learned about the elasticity and inelasticity of products. For a product to be inelasticity, it must be necessity, doesn’t have good substitutes for the product, and it’s inexpensive, and vice versa for elasticity. This article talks about the new invented hybrid cars that saves gas, and do less pollution. It shows us clearly that gasoline cars are now elastic, and the new cheap hybrid car is the new substitute for an expensive gasoline car. This also shows us that time can make a product elastic. The invention of this new hybrid car might decrease the demand for a gasoline car, because of the oil price increasing rapidly and the pollution it’s giving off to the environment. In my opinion, I don’t think I would buy a hybrid car, because I still don’t trust that the battery, because i think it might die out on you out of the blue.

Chapter 1

Article - http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=&fArticleId=3513088

This article basically talks about how scarce wheat have become around the world. This growing scarcity of wheat is causing lots of problems around the world. This reduction in producing wheat, in Australia, Ukraine and Unite States, the price will increase around 50 percent this year, causing a skyrocketing in price. Price in Chicago might jump 47 percent to $7.50 a bushel. If the scarcity of wheat continues to grow, the price might reach it’s highest in the next six months, which would threatening to spur inflation in China and India. Lots of companies are also affected because of this growing scarcity of wheat. For example, produces from Kellogg, the largest US cereal producer, and Kraft foods, the world’s second largest food maker would be affected. Also, consumers that buy products from this producer may stop buying it from them. This would cost the business to lose profits. Even though the price might seem high right now, the price might go even higher in the near future, because of global shortages. The price of agriculture has out performed the prices of energy and metals since September, and this is expected to go on till 2007. If the price continues to increase, people would end up buying less clothing or other stuff you need for food, creating hardship for some countries and people. World inventories of wheat would fall around 43 percent by June to 119.3 million tons, which is the lowest since 1982.

Scarcity is one the things we talked about in chapter 1, we mentioned how scarcity of the product will affect the price of that product. In this article, it talks about the scarcity of wheat around the world right now, and how countries and companies around the world are being affected because of this. This reduction of wheat is a great benefit for farmers, because of the price increase of wheat in these past few years. Although this scarcity might not seem so bad, what if farmers don’t produce enough wheat to make products for people around the world? Since products made from wheat are the cheapest thing you can get, most of the countries around the world rely on wheat. For example, poor families in Africa have bread for their breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If the price continues to skyrocket like this, poor people around the world may not even have any food left to fulfill their basic needs. If you put the negative stuff of how wheat is becoming scarcer than before. I would pretty much want to become a farmer and make tons of money.