Quote:
Originally Posted by Gargamel
And where did we get these small city power plant requirements? From what i saw in the article, they never mentioned the power required to fire it, jsut the amount of energy released in the round.
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The joule (pronounced /ˈdʒuːl/ or /ˈdʒaʊl/); symbol J) is a derived unit of energy or work in the International System of Units. It is equal to the energy expended (or work done) in applying a force of one newton through a distance of one metre (1 newton metre or N·m), or in passing an electric current of one ampere through a resistance of one ohm for one second. It is named after the English physicist James Prescott Joule (1818–1889)
1 kilowatt hour = 3.6×106 J (or 3.6 MJ)
One joule in everyday life is approximately:
- the energy required to lift a small apple one metre straight up.
- the energy released when that same apple falls one metre to the ground.
We're talking about an electromagnet so I'd think the estimate of power required would be somewhat accurate, but to be fair a joule can be mathematically converted to calories so we could probably estimate the power of this rail gun in candy bars.
