No, we would trace it back to James Joule who, along with Sir Isaac Newton, James Watt, Michael Faraday, Lord Kelvin and Louis Gray are the six Brits who gave their names to SI units - more than any other nation. We can also add Dalton's name to that list, as the Dalton is now the BIPM-approved replacement for the amu.
BTW, if you go into the Manchester City Hall, you will see two statues of natives of that city in the foyer - Joule and Dalton. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of James R. Frysinger Sent: 07 June 2010 19:33 To: U.S. Metric Association Cc: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:47544] Re: One unit only The term "power" meaning rate of energy transfer (incl. "generation", "usage", etc.) likely did not become important until the Industrial Revolution. The Brits probably would trace the term back to Isaac Wattever his name is. Jim Pat Naughtin wrote: > Thanks Phil, > > I am aware that Isaac Newton had a concept of the difference between > energy and power, but from my reading of his work he did not have the > words to express this clearly. That's why I think that the distinction > (between energy and power) did not become clear until about 1800. > > Cheers, > > Pat Naughtin > Author of the ebook, /Metrication Leaders Guide,/ that you can obtain > from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html > PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, > Geelong, Australia > Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 > > Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped > thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern > metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save > thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their > businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different > trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and > government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's > clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the > metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. > See http://www.metricationmatters.com > <http://www.metricationmatters.com/>for more metrication information, > contact Pat at [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]> or to get the free > '/Metrication matters/' newsletter go > to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe. > > On 2010/06/07, at 20:49 , Phil Hall wrote: > >> >> Dear Pat >> >> Re: >>> As far as I know power and energy were clearly distinguished as two >>> quite separate and distinct physical realities late in the 1700s or >>> early in the 1800s (I would like to have an exact date but this is >>> the best I can do at present). >> >> I am inclined to think that it must go back a bit earlier than that, >> at least to a point where the principal of conservation of energy or >> momentum was established. Isaac Newton effectively did that in his >> third law of motion (popularly known as "action and reaction are equal >> and opposite") in 1687. In that context power is a measure of the rate >> at which energy is converted from one form to another. >> >> I may be wrong but I find it hard to imagine Newton and his >> contemporaries not having some idea that energy is a quantifiable >> property of matter according to its state (Einstein later showed that >> matter and energy are interchangeable) and the concept of power as we >> now know it. >> > -- James R. Frysinger 632 Stony Point Mountain Road Doyle, TN 38559-3030 (C) 931.212.0267 (H) 931.657.3107 (F) 931.657.3108
