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The work required to produce one watt of power for one second, or one watt-second (W?s) (compare kilowatt-hour – 3.6 megajoules). This relationship can be used to define the watt.
The joule is named after James Prescott Joule. As with every SI unit named for a person, its symbol starts with an upper case letter (J), but when written in full it follows the rules for capitalisation of a common noun; i.e., "joule" becomes capitalised at the beginning of a sentence and in titles, but is otherwise in lower case.
"Such a heat unit, if found acceptable, might with great propriety, I think, be called the Joule, after the man who has done so much to develop the dynamical theory of heat."[8]
At the second International Electrical Congress, on 31 August 1889, the joule was officially adopted alongside the watt and the quadrant (later renamed to henry).[9]
Joule died in the same year, on 11 October 1889.
At the fourth congress (1893), the "international Ampere" and "international Ohm" were defined, with slight changes in the specifications for their measurement, with the "international Joule" being the unit derived from them.
In 1935, the International Electrotechnical Commission (as the successor organisation of the International Electrical Congress) adopted the "Giorgi system", which by virtue of assuming a defined value for the magnetic constant also implied a redefinition of the Joule. The Giorgi system was approved by the International Committee for Weights and Measures in 1946. The joule was now no longer defined based on electromagnetic unit, but instead as the unit of work performed by one unit of force (at the time not yet named newton)
over the distance of 1 metre. The joule was explicitly intended as the unit of energy to be used in both electromagnetic and mechanical contexts.[10] The ratification of the definition at the ninth General Conference on Weights and Measures, in 1948,
added the specification that the joule was also to be preferred as the unit of heat in the context of calorimetry, thereby officially deprecating the use of the calorie.[11]
This definition was the direct precursor of the joule as adopted in the modern International System of Units in 1960.
The definition of the joule as J=kg?m2?s-2 has remained unchanged since 1946, but the joule as a derived unit has inherited changes in the definitions of the second (in 1960 and 1967), the metre (in 1983) and the kilogram (in 2019).
Practical examples
One joule represents (approximately):
The amount of electricity required to run a device for .
The energy required to accelerate a mass at through a distance of .
The energy required to lift a medium-sized tomato up 1 metre (3 ft 3 in), assuming the tomato has a mass of 101.97 grams (3.597 oz).
The heat required to raise the temperature 0.239 g of water from 0 °C to 1 °C, or from 32 °F to 33.8 °F.[12]
The typical energy released as heat by a person at rest every 1/60 s .[note 1]
The kinetic energy of a human moving very slowly (0.2 m/s or 0.72 km/h).
The kinetic energy of a tennis ball moving at 6 m/s (22 km/h).[13]
The food energy (kcal) in slightly more than half of a sugar crystal (/crystal).
Multiples
SI multiples of joule (J)
Submultiples
Multiples
Value
SI symbol
Name
Value
SI symbol
Name
10-1 J
dJ
decijoule
101 J
daJ
decajoule
10-2 J
cJ
centijoule
102 J
hJ
hectojoule
10-3 J
mJ
millijoule
103 J
kJ
kilojoule
10-6 J
µJ
microjoule
106 J
MJ
megajoule
10-9 J
nJ
nanojoule
109 J
GJ
gigajoule
10-12 J
pJ
picojoule
1012 J
TJ
terajoule
10-15 J
fJ
femtojoule
1015 J
PJ
petajoule
10-18 J
aJ
attojoule
1018 J
EJ
exajoule
10-21 J
zJ
zeptojoule
1021 J
ZJ
zettajoule
10-24 J
yJ
yoctojoule
1024 J
YJ
yottajoule
Common multiples are in bold face
Yoctojoule
The yoctojoule (yJ) is equal to .
Zeptojoule
The zeptojoule (zJ) is equal to one sextillionth of one joule. is about one electronvolt. The minimal energy needed to change a bit at around room temperature - approximately - is given by the Landauer limit.
Attojoule
The attojoule (aJ) is equal to .
Femtojoule
The femtojoule (fJ) is equal to .
Picojoule
The picojoule (pJ) is equal to one trillionth of one joule.
Nanojoule
The nanojoule (nJ) is equal to one billionth of one joule. is about the kinetic energy of a flying mosquito.[14]
Microjoule
The microjoule (?J) is equal to one millionth of one joule. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) produces collisions of the microjoule order (7 TeV) per particle.
Millijoule
The millijoule (mJ) is equal to one thousandth of a joule.
Kilojoule
The kilojoule (kJ) is equal to one thousand joules. Nutritional food labels in most countries express energy in kilojoules (kJ).[15] One square metre of the Earth receives about of solar radiation every second in full daylight.[16] A human in a sprint has approximately 3 kJ of kinetic energy,[17] while a cheetah in a (76 mph) sprint has approximately 20 kJ.[18]
Megajoule
The megajoule (MJ) is equal to one million joules, or approximately the kinetic energy of a one megagram (tonne) vehicle moving at (100 mph). The energy required to heat of liquid water at constant pressure from 0 °C (32 °F) to 100 °C (212 °F) is approximately . One kilowatt-hour of electricity is .
Gigajoule
The gigajoule (GJ) is equal to one billion joules. is about the chemical energy of combusting 1 barrel (159 l) of petroleum.[19] 2 GJ is about the Planck energy unit.
Terajoule
The terajoule (TJ) is equal to one trillion joules; or about (which is often used in energy tables). About of energy was released by Little Boy.[20] The International Space Station, with a mass of approximately and orbital velocity of ,[21] has a kinetic energy of roughly . In 2017, Hurricane Irma was estimated to have a peak wind energy of .[22][23]
Petajoule
The petajoule (PJ) is equal to one quadrillion joules. is about of TNT which is the amount of energy released by the Tsar Bomba, the largest man-made explosion ever.
The zettajoule (ZJ) is equal to one sextillion joules. It is somewhat more than the amount of energy required to heat the Baltic sea by 1 °C, assuming properties similar to those of pure water.[24] Human annual world energy consumption is approximately . The energy to raise the temperature of Earth's atmosphere 1 °C is approximately .
Yottajoule
The yottajoule (YJ) is equal to one septillion joules. It is a little less than the amount of energy required to heat the Indian Ocean by 1 °C, assuming properties similar to those of pure water.[24] The thermal output of the Sun is approximately per second.
Conversions
1 joule is equal to (approximately unless otherwise stated):
A result of this similarity is that the SI unit for torque is the newton-metre, which works out algebraically to have the same dimensions as the joule, but they are not interchangeable. The General Conference on Weights and Measures has given the unit of energy the name joule, but has not given the unit of torque any special name, hence it is simply the newton-metre (N?m) - a compound name derived from its constituent parts.[27] The use of newton-metres for torque and joules for energy is helpful to avoid misunderstandings and miscommunications.[27]
The distinction may be seen also in the fact that energy is a scalar quantity - the dot product of a force vector and a displacement vector. By contrast, torque is a vector - the cross product of a force vector and a distance vector. Torque and energy are related to one another by the equation
where E is energy, ? is (the vector magnitude of) torque, and ? is the angle swept (in radians). Since plane angles are dimensionless, it follows that torque and energy have the same dimensions.
Watt-second
A watt-second (symbol W s or W·s) is a derived unit of energy equivalent to the joule.[28] The watt-second is the energy equivalent to the power of one watt sustained for one second. While the watt-second is equivalent to the joule in both units and meaning, there are some contexts in which the term "watt-second" is used instead of "joule".[why?]
Photography
In photography, the unit for flashes is the watt-second. A flash can be rated in watt-seconds (e.g., 300 W?s) or in joules (different names for the same thing), but historically, the term "watt-second" has been used and continues to be used.
The energy rating a flash is given is not a reliable benchmark for its light output because there are numerous factors that affect the energy conversion efficiency. For example, the construction of the tube will affect the efficiency, and the use of reflectors and filters will change the usable light output towards the subject. Some companies specify their products in "true" watt-seconds, and some specify their products in "nominal" watt-seconds.[29]
^This is called the basal metabolic rate. It corresponds to about 5,000 kJ (1,200 kcal) per day. The kilocalorie (symbol kcal) is also known as the dietary calorie.
References
^"joule". A new English dictionary on historical principles. The Clarendon press. January 1901. p. 606.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
^The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition (1985). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., p. 691.
^McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Physics, Fifth Edition (1997). McGraw-Hill, Inc., p. 224.
^"The unit of heat has hitherto been taken variously as the heat required to raise a pound of water at the freezing-point through 1° Fahrenheit or Centigrade, or, again, the heat necessary to raise a kilogramme of water 1° Centigrade. The inconvenience of a unit so entirely arbitrary is sufficiently apparent to justify the introduction of one based on the electro-magnetic system, viz. the heat generated in one second by the current of an Ampère flowing through the resistance of an Ohm. In absolute measure its value is 107 C.G.S. units, and, assuming Joule's equivalent as 42,000,000, it is the heat necessary to raise 0.238 grammes of water 1° Centigrade, or, approximately, the 1⁄1000th part of the arbitrary unit of a pound of water raised 1° Fahrenheit and the 1⁄4000th of the kilogramme of water raised 1° Centigrade. Such a heat unit, if found acceptable, might with great propriety, I think, be called the Joule, after the man who has done so much to develop the dynamical theory of heat."Carl Wilhelm Siemens, Report of the Fifty-Second Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. S. 6 f.
^Bonnie Berkowitz; Laris Karklis; Reuben Fischer-Baum; Chiqui Esteban (11 September 2017). "Analysis - How Big Is Hurricane Irma?". Washington Post. Retrieved 2017.
^The adoption of joules as units of energy, FAO/WHO Ad Hoc Committee of Experts on Energy and Protein, 1971. A report on the changeover from calories to joules in nutrition.
^ ab"Units with special names and symbols; units that incorporate special names and symbols". International Bureau of Weights and Measures. Archived from the original on 28 June 2009. Retrieved 2015. A derived unit can often be expressed in different ways by combining base units with derived units having special names. Joule, for example, may formally be written newton metre, or kilogram metre squared per second squared. This, however, is an algebraic freedom to be governed by common sense physical considerations; in a given situation some forms may be more helpful than others. In practice, with certain quantities, preference is given to the use of certain special unit names, or combinations of unit names, to facilitate the distinction between different quantities having the same dimension.