Orders of magnitude (power) 

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This page lists examples of the power in watts produced by various different sources of energy. They are grouped by orders of magnitude, and each section covers three orders of magnitude, or a factor of one thousand.

Contents

Below 1 Watt

yoctowatt (10-24 watt)

zeptowatt (10-21 watt)

attowatt (10-18 watt)

femtowatt (10-15 watt)

picowatt (10-12 watt)

nanowatt (10-9 watt)

microwatt (10-6 watt)

milliwatt (10-3 watt)

Between 1 and 1000 Watts

watt

Above 1000 Watts

kilowatt (103 watts)

megawatt (106 watts)

The productive capacity of electrical generators operated by utility companies is often measured in MW. Few things can sustain the transfer or consumption of energy on this scale; some of these events or entities include: lightning strikes, naval craft (such as aircraft carriers and submarines), engineering hardware, and some scientific research equipment (such as the supercollider and large lasers).

For reference, about 10,000 100-watt lightbulbs or 5,000 computer systems would be needed to draw 1 megawatt. Also, 1 MW equals approximately 1360 horsepower. Modern high-powered diesel-electric railroad locomotives typically have a peak power output of 3–5 MW, whereas a typical modern nuclear power plant produces on the order of 500–2000 MW peak output.

gigawatt (109 watts)

terawatt (1012 watts)

petawatt (1015 watts)

exawatt (1018 watts)

zettawatt (1021 watts)

yottawatt (1024 watts)

greater than one thousand yottawatts

References

  1. ^ a b CERN. Beam Parameters and Definitions". Table 2.2. Retrieved 2008-09-13
  2. ^ http://www.gearypacific.com/ComfortZone/14%20The%20People%20Load.pdf
  3. ^ [1] - Human power output during repeated sprint cycle exercise: the influence of thermal stress; Ball D, Burrows C, Sargeant AJ.
  4. ^ National Grid electricity consumption statistics
  5. ^ World Wind Energy Association Statistics (PDF).
  6. ^ [2] - Nasa: Listening to shortwave radio signals from Jupiter
  7. ^ U.S energy consumption by source, 1949-2005, Energy Information Administration accessed 25 May 2007
  8. ^ Schiller, Christoph (2007). "Gravitation and relativity", Motion Mountain, 448. ISBN 978-3-00-021946-7. 

See also