I have often heard the statement, "work is expressed in units of foot-pounds," but that's a concept I've always avoided so I have not had much opportunity to hear it actually expressed in units. I just figured somebody, somewhere, must use foot-pounds for work.
Interesting that kilowatt hours are used instead of watt seconds... The fact that a petajoule is close to a quad reminds me of similar conversion approximations. For instance, a liter is close to a quart. There are also hybrid units, i.e. units named for US or British units but having quantities defined in metric units, such as the metric pint, the metric mile, etc. John Hynes ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rodney Jones" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 8:08 AM Subject: [USMA:31639] book on energy > Just finished reading "Energy - The Master Resource" by Bradley & Fulmer > (Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 2004). > > Well worth the time to read, if only to help counter the "we're running out of > energy" hysteria that grips the press on occassion. > > Sadly, however, it uses a total mish-mash of units, with emphasis (since this is a > "big picture" book) on the "quad" (quadrillion BTUs). Since I do a lot of work in > the electric utility industry, I'm familiar with the quad, but sure wish it would > give way to petajoules (1 PJ = 0.95 quads, or 1 PJ = 1 quad is close enough for most > purposes). > > At one point they even say "In the united States, work is expressed in units of > foot-pounds, while in Europe, work is expresed in terms of newton-meters (or > joules)." > > I cannot think of a single example of ever seeing work expressed in foot-pounds; has > anyone on this list ever seen it? We see kilowatthours, megawatthours, BTUs, etc., > but foot pounds? > > I've got to write these guys a letter! > > Rod Jones > > > > > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > The all-new My Yahoo! - Get yours free! > http://my.yahoo.com > > >
