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How Much Power Is 1.21 Gigawatts, Anyway? The Science Behind Back to the Future (www.syfy.com)

submitted 7 months ago by inkican@kbin.social to c/scifi@kbin.social

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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.

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[–] absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz 1 points 7 months ago

This article is completely wrong.

Watts doesn't have a time factor at all.

Power is measured in W (Watts).
Energy is measured in J (Joule's), or Wh (Watt-hours) where 1 Wh = 3600 J.

So 1.21GW is enough power to light 12.1 million 100 W bulbs, if you kept them powered for 1s you would use 1.21GJ of energy, which is 3.36MWh.

I can't believe how badly the article gets it wrong.

I'm an engineer, I work with this stuff regularly.