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Old 27-June-2008, 04:02 PM
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mugaliens mugaliens is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tobin Dax View Post
A 100 watt light bulbs puts out 100 Joules of energy each second. For comparison, the energy of a one-ton car driving at 60 mph is 0.326 Joules. We might be able to measure that to more places if we wanted to, but not to enough places that uncertainty would be significant.
100 J/s = .134 HP

It takes considerably more horsepower (approximately 40 HP) to sustain your average 2,000 lb vehicle at 60 mph.

40 HP = 29,828 joule/second.

Your statement comparing HP with Joules is a misnomer, as the HP equivalent in the SI system is J/s, not merely Joules.

That and the value of your figure itself is off by several orders of magnitude...

By the way, 100 watt = 100 joule/second.

Thus, a 1 ton car at 60 mph requires 298 times the energy to sustain it's velocity than what it takes to light a 100 W light bulb.
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