Bill Hooper wrote in USMA 18506: >on 3/4/02 11:48 AM, Joseph B. Reid at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >> Because ordinary people, as dintinct from physicists, think much more in >> terms of hours and minutes rather than seconds. Electricity bills >> recognize this by using the hour as their time unit. > >I don't believe "ordinary" people think in terms of hours and minutes when >thinking of their electric bill. I think they think in terms of >kilowatt-hours, but ONLY in the context that: >(1) their bill tells them how much energy they used IN KILOWATT-HOURS, and >(2) the price they pay is given IN CENTS PER KILOWATT-HOUR. > >They have no idea (most of them) how much a kilowatt-hours is, or what it >has to do with "hours" at all. Many people will use the term "kilowatts" to >describe their energy use in kilowatt-hours, simple dropping off the "hours" >because they don't know what it signifies and don't think it makes any >difference.
"Ordinary" people know what a kilowatt is. The consumptions of their household devices in watts or kilowatts are posted on all of them. People can more easily understand watts and hours than joules and seconds. The trouble is that our conception of time is in hours, and there is an awkward 3600 seconds in an hour; and the joule is not met in everyday life. Joseph B.Reid 17 Glebe Road West Toronto M5P 1C8 TEL. 416-486-6071
