The following is a list of various things and the energy they represent, some very interesting things in there…
Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_%28power%29
INTERESTING FIGURES IN BOLD RED TEXT
zeptowatt (10−21 watt)
- ~10 zW – tech: approximate power of Galileo space probe’s radio signal (when at Jupiter) as received on earth by a 70-meter DSN antenna.
attowatt (10−18 watt)
- 1 aW – phys: approximate power scale at which operation of nanoelectromechanical systems are overwhelmed by thermal fluctuations.[1]
- 100 aW – tech: the GPS signal strength measured at the surface of the Earth,[clarification needed] roughly equivalent to viewing a 25-watt light bulb from a distance of 10,000 miles.[2]
femtowatt (10−15 watt)
- 2.5 fW – tech: minimum discernible signal at the antenna terminal of a good FM radio receiver
- 10 fW (−110 dBm) – tech: approximate lower limit of power reception on digital spread-spectrum cell phone
picowatt (10−12 watt)
- 1 pW (−90 dBm) – biomed: average power consumption of a human cell
- 150 pW – biomed: power entering a human eye from a 100-watt lamp 1 km away
nanowatt (10−9 watt)
- 2–15 nW – tech: power consumption of 8-bit PIC microcontroller chips when in “sleep” mode
microwatt (10−6 watt)
- 1 µW (−30 dBm) – tech: approximate consumption of a quartz wristwatch
- 3 µW – astro: cosmic microwave background radiation per square meter
milliwatt (10−3 watt)
- 5 mW – tech: laser in a CD-ROM drive
- 5–10 mW – tech: laser in a DVD player
- 70 mW – tech: antenna power in a typical consumer wireless router
watt
- 4 W – tech: the power consumption of an incandescent night light
- 14 W – tech: the power consumption of a typical household compact fluorescent light bulb
- 20–40 W – biomed: approximate power consumption of the human brain[4]
- 30–40 W – tech: the power consumption of a typical household fluorescent tube light
- 60 W – tech: the power consumption of a typical household incandescent light bulb
- 100 W – biomed: approximate basal metabolic rate of an adult human body[5]
- 120 W – tech: power output of 1 m2solar panel in full sunlight (approx. 12% efficiency), at sea level
- 130 W – tech: peak power consumption of a Pentium 4 CPU
- 253 W (2,215 kWh/year) – geo: per capita average power use of the world in 2001
- 290 W – units: approximately 1000 BTU/hour
- 300–400 W – tech: PC GPU Nvidia Geforce Fermi 480 power consumption[6]
- 400 W – tech: legal limit of power output of an amateur radio station in the United Kingdom
- 500 W – biomed: power output (useful work plus heat) of a person working hard physically
- 745.7 W – units: 1 horsepower
- 750 W – astro: approximately the amount of sunshine falling on a square metre of the Earth’s surface on a clear day in March for northern temperate latitudes
- 909 W – biomed: peak output power of a healthy human (nonathlete) during a 30-second cycle sprint at 30.1 degree Celsius.[7]
kilowatt (103 watts)
- 1.1 kW – tech: power of a microwave oven
- 1.366 kW – astro: power received from the sun at the earth’s orbit per square metre
- 1.5 kW – tech: legal limit of power output of an amateur radio station in the United States
- up to 2 kW – biomed: approximate short-time power output of sprinting professional cyclists
- 1 kW to 3 kW – tech: heat output of a domestic electric kettle
- 3.6 kW – tech: synchrotron radiation power lost per ring in the Large Hadron Collider at 7000 GeV[3]
- 3.3–6.6 kW – eco: average photosynthetic power output per square kilometer of ocean[8]
- 30 kW – power generated by the four motors of GEN H-4 one-man helicopter
- 11.4 kW – average power consumption per person in the United States as of 2009[citation needed]
- 16–32 kW – eco: average photosynthetic power output per square kilometer of land[8]
- 10 kW to 50 kW – tech: nominal power of clear channel AM[9]
- 50 kW to 100 kW – tech: highest allowed ERP for an FM band radio station in the United States[10]
- 40 kW to 200 kW – tech: approximate range of power output of typical automobiles
- 167 kW – tech: power consumption of UNIVAC 1 computer
- 250 kW to 800 kW – tech: approximate range of power output of ‘supercars‘
- 450 kW – tech: approximate maximum power output of a large 18-wheeler truck engine
- 800 kW – tech: approximate average power output of a small coal power plant
megawatt (106 watts)
- 1.3 MW – tech: power output of P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft
- 1.5 MW – tech: peak power output of GE’s standard wind turbine
- 1.5 MW – tech: achieved est Drawbar power of GWR Castle class (2K EDHP) (1923)
- 2.4 MW – tech: peak power output of a Princess Coronation class steam locomotive (approx 3.3K EDHP on test) (1937)
- 2.5 MW – biomed: peak power output of a blue whale
- 3 MW – tech: mechanical power output of a diesel locomotive
- 10 MW – tech: highest ERP allowed for an UHF television station
- 10.3 MW – geo: electrical power output of Togo
- 12.2 MW – tech: approx power available to a Eurostar 20-carriage train
- 16 MW – tech: rate at which a typical gasoline pump transfers chemical energy to a vehicle
- 17 to 80 MW – tech: approximate maximum power output of a Nd:YAG laser used in Particle Image Velocimetry (100mJ over 6ns to 400mJ over 5ns, both at 532 nm)
- 26 MW – tech: peak power output of the reactor of a Los-Angeles class nuclear submarine
- 75 MW – tech: maximum power output of one GE90 jet engine as installed on the Boeing 777
- 140 MW – tech: average power consumption of a Boeing 747 passenger aircraft
- 190 MW – tech: peak power output of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier
- 900 MW – tech: electric power output of a CANDU nuclear reactor
- 959 MW – geo: average electrical power consumption of Zimbabwe in 1998
gigawatt (109 watts)
- 1.3 GW – tech: electric power output of Manitoba Hydro Limestone hydroelectric generating station
- 2.074 GW – tech: peak power generation of Hoover Dam
- 2.1 GW – tech: peak power generation of Aswan Dam
- 4.116 GW – tech: installed capacity of Kendal Power Station, the world’s largest coal-fired power plant.
- 8.21 GW – tech: capacity of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, the world’s largest nuclear power plant.[11][12]
- 12.6 GW – tech: electrical power generation of the Itaipu Dam
- 12.7 GW – geo: average electrical power consumption of Norway in 1998
- 18.3 GW – tech: current electrical power generation of the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric power plant of any type.
- 55 GW – tech peak daily electrical power consumption of Great Britain in November 2008.[13]
- 74 GW – tech: total installed wind turbine capacity at end of 2006.[14]
- 190 GW – tech: average power consumption of the first stage of the Saturn V rocket
terawatt (1012 watts)
- 2 TW – astro: approximate power generated between the surfaces of Jupiter and its moon Io due to Jupiter’s tremendous magnetic field.[15]
- 3.34 TW – geo: average total (gas, electricity, etc.) power consumption of the US in 2005[16]
- 15 TW – geo: average total power consumption of the human world in 2004
- 44 TW – geo: average total heat flux from earth’s interior[17]
- 75 TW – eco: global net primary production (= biomass production) via photosynthesis[citation needed]
- 50 to 200 TW – weather: rate of heat energy release by a hurricane
- 290 TW – tech: the power the Z machine reaches in 1 billionth of a second when it is fired
- 300 TW – tech: power reached by the extremely high-power Hercules laser from the University of Michigan.
petawatt (1015 watts)
- 1.1 PW – tech: world’s most powerful laser pulses by laser still in operation (claimed on March 31, 2008 by Texas Center for High Intensity Laser Science at The University of Texas at Austin).
- 1.25 PW – tech: world’s most powerful laser pulses (claimed on May 23, 1996 by Lawrence Livermore Laboratory).
- 1.4 PW – geo: estimated heat flux transported by the Gulf Stream.
- 4 PW – geo: estimated total heat flux transported by earth‘s atmosphere and oceans away from the equator towards the poles.
- 10–100 PW geo: estimated total power output of a Type-I civilization on the Kardashev scale.
- 174.0 PW – astro: total power received by the Earth from the sun
exawatt (1018 watts)
- 100 EW – tech: Extreme Light Infrastructure laser[citation needed]
zettawatt (1021 watts)
- 135 ZW – astro: approximate luminosity of Wolf 359
yottawatt (1024 watts)
- 384.6 YW – astro: luminosity of the sun
- 400 YW – geo: estimated total power output of a Type-II civilization on the Kardashev scale.
Greater than one thousand yottawatts
- 3.31 × 1031W – astro: approximate luminosity of Beta Centauri
- 1.23 × 1032W – astro: approximate luminosity of Deneb
- 5 × 1036W – astro: approximate luminosity of the Milky Way galaxy.
- 4 × 1037W – astro: estimated total power output of a Type-III civilization on the Kardashev scale.
- 1 × 1040W – astro: approximate luminosity of a quasar
- 1 × 1042W – astro: approximate luminosity of the Local Supercluster
- 1 × 1045W – astro: approximate luminosity of a gamma-ray burst
- 2 × 1049W – astro: approximate total luminosity of all the stars in the observable universe
- 3.63 × 1052W – phys: The Planck power, the basic unit of power in the Planck units.
Related articles
- An interesting look a energy (wimminz.wordpress.com)