Phil, I'm aware of that. However, I guess you didn't quite catch my point. The unit of power is *W*, not A! I don't really care if 'amps' would help you find your 'load' in a circuit and I honestly doubt most people would either.
When I operate an appliance I can't care less if I may or may not *also* operate a host of other ones simultaneously. Therefore, misquoting power in such a fashion IMHO is inexcusable. Perhaps for a professional job shop type of business this may be relevant (since they operate quite a few pieces of equipment at the same time), but not as much to ordinary users. In any case, this is one fundamental problem I see in the market, that people do not use physical concepts properly. Marcus On Tue, 3 Feb 2004 12:35:33 Phil Chernack wrote: >Marcus, > >Power is usually given in amps because it is easier to calculate the load on >a particular breaker in your house this way. For instance, if I have a 15 >amp circut and I put a 3 amp appliance on it, I know my remaining draw >before blowing the circut is 10 or so amps (allowing for a margin of >safety). If power was given in watts only, I would have to divide watts by >volts to get the amperage draw. BTW, most, if not all appliances give the >wattage as well. Remember, American homes have 3 phase power coming into >them. One bus at 220 divided into 2 at 110 each. The total amperage >provided is usually around 200. > >Phil > >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Behalf Of Ma Be >Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 12:19 PM >To: U.S. Metric Association >Subject: [USMA:28491] Re: Torque and horsepower > > >Dear John, I think I could answer some of your questions below (they're >interspersed). > >On Mon, 2 Feb 2004 18:49:56 > john mercer wrote: >>Is the output of electric motors still given in horsepower? > >To my knowledge this is one of the few products that I see reasonably >correctly quoted in the market, i.e. in W. There might be exceptions though >as you found below. > >> I have been on some small appliance web sites and they give the power of >the motors in amps. > >True. However, I cannot understand (for the love!...) of me why ANYONE >should quote power in 'amps' (S-I-C)! Whoever does that is evidently either >delusional or has absolutely no understanding of the most fundamental >principles of Physics... The ampere is a unit of *current*, NOT power! > >>... I don't know if Kilowatts would ever be excepted in North America, >because everybody uses horsepower all the time... > >Who knows? As long as the populace continues to treat measurements in >general as some "cultural" aspect in their lives we'll continue to >experience and see such nonsense in the marketplace, what can I say?... > >Marcus > > >____________________________________________________________ >Get 25MB of email storage with Lycos Mail Plus! >Sign up today -- http://www.mail.lycos.com/brandPage.shtml?pageId=plus > > ____________________________________________________________ Get 25MB of email storage with Lycos Mail Plus! Sign up today -- http://www.mail.lycos.com/brandPage.shtml?pageId=plus
