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Old 09-17-2008, 04:36 PM   #32 (permalink)
Ryland
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[QUOTE=Xringer;61712]
Quote:
Originally Posted by WisJim View Post

Here ya go!
Watt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The watt (symbol: W) is the SI derived unit of power, equal to one joule of energy per second. It measures a rate of energy use or production.
Wikipedia is correct, you just didn't read the rest of it.

to quote Wikipedia:
"Confusion of watts and watt-hours

Power and energy are frequently confused in the general media. Power is the rate at which energy is used (or generated). A watt is one joule of energy per second. For example, if a 100 watt light bulb is turned on for one hour, the energy used is 100 watt-hours or 0.1 kilowatt-hour, or 360,000 joules. This same quantity of energy would light a 40-watt bulb for 2.5 hours. A power station would be rated in watts, but its annual energy sales would be in watt-hours (or kilowatt-hours or megawatt-hours). A kilowatt-hour is the amount of energy equivalent to a steady power of 1 kilowatt running for 1 hour, or 3.6 megajoules."

And the definition of Joule:

joule (jūl, joul) pronunciation
n. (Abbr. J or j)

1. The International System unit of electrical, mechanical, and thermal energy.
2.
1. A unit of electrical energy equal to the work done when a current of one ampere is passed through a resistance of one ohm for one second.
2. A unit of energy equal to the work done when a force of one newton acts through a distance of one meter.


So if you read both of them it becomes very clear that a Watt is not a watt second, because then a watt hour would be a watt/second/hour, and that would be kind of like giving speed in miles per second per hour...
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