Back to the Future’s 1.21 gigawatts sounds huge, but is it? We compare different power levels of common objects to see how much energy a gigawatt really is.
Back to the Future’s 1.21 gigawatts sounds huge, but is it? We compare different power levels of common objects to see how much energy a gigawatt really is.
Where are you getting those numbers from? First of all, GW is a unit of power, not energy. You can’t “produce 1.21GW in a day” because it’s a measurement of instantaneous power. Some nuclear reactors produce around 1GW(e), which means 1 gigawatt hour per hour.
haha, i read the article. its all in there.
Yeah, and the article is wrong, though only slightly. They seem to be confusing watts (power, energy over time) with Joules (energy, power times a duration of time). They give a passable definition in the beginning (“energy transfer”), but they seem to misunderstand what the “transfer” part means exactly.
If you find-replace all instances of “watt” with “watt-hour” after that starting definition, it would be more accurate. That’s why I say it’s only slightly wrong.
i think they attempted to flatten the complex subject, and even specifically mention that watts isnt exactly correct, but close enough.
if all you need to do is add -hours to the end of watt for the whole thing to be even an approximation, i think the article is fine and all the scientists here are acting pendants.
this is an entertainment piece. not building a bridge here…
1.21 gw = output of one nuke plant
1.21 gw × 1 day = (power requirements of a house) × (100 years)
I’m guessing