A View from the Back of the Envelope top

Power
J/s (Watt)
Scale of some things
Landmarks
Energy
Time
[ Scale | Other ]

Rough Draft

Conversions

kilowatt kW 103 × 1.000
horsepower hp 103 × 0.746
10 ×
10 ×
10 ×
10 ×
10 ×

Notes

Currently in pre-first-draft state...
*Vade units, clarify concept
do an energy flow diagram for earth/space.  atleast sketch
flesh out - therm/chem proc, transfer radiate
whale waterfall powerline house-elec sunlight/m^2(&material) gas-stove tv-light
shower-drip-Pgrav cells(wbc,rbc,sk,ame,pro,bga) leaf-en atp mitocondria
some biomech proc like dna repl, ave nerve, grass growth, rain-ke
rubbing hands together, cigarette, concrete drying, cold pack,
river pe, rising sap, mouse, insect, hypebird, [On size and life],
sound, crane lifting, elevator, starlight(Earth/eye), cpu, memcell, 
some massflow E eqivs, petro/gas/coal frm Cow 240, rad exp [Cow 256],
insolation vs latitude band [Cow 262], human food in [263]
clarify car, human, net primary productivity
breakdown human, grok structure, all of light
wood&dung: 30e18J/yr(1980)[Cow 240], 3.2e7s/yr, so 1e12
hydro: 6.1e18J/yr1980, so 2e11
From [Cow, p238]:
 sun into space 3.7 × 1026
 in 10^12: incident on top of atmos 175k (ie 1.75e17)
   reflected into space by earth 53k; by atmos 46k
   absorbed by atmos 44k (80% air&dust, 20% cloud water)
   earth surface heat to atmos: latent(?) 42k, conductive 8.6k
   IR surface to space: 10.2k
   interior to surface: 20-40
   wind, waves, ocean currents: 500-2k (why x4?)
   "net primary production on earth": 75-125
   of food consumed by humans 1980: 0.55
   energy consuption 1980: world 10; US 2.5
   electric production 1980: world 0.87; US 0.26
[The next few links, to the 1996 CIA factbook, are broken.
  The current factbook is here.]
From [World Factbook 1996]:
  world Electricity: 
   capacity: 2,773,000,000 kW (ie 2.8e12)
   production: 11.601 trillion kWh 
   consumption per capita: 1,937 kWh (1993) 
  US Electricity: 
   capacity: 695,120,000 kW (ie 0.70e12)
   production: 3.1 trillion kWh 
   consumption per capita: 11,236 kWh (1993) 
From [Brandt]:
  4 x 10^{-6}       watts  Average energy output from 1 kilogram of the Milky Way
  1 x 10^{-3}       watts  Optical disc player laser
  60                watts  Light bulb
  150               watts  Human being under normal conditions
  750               watts  Maximum long duration horse output
  1500              watts  Typical fireplace fire
  20000             watts  Car
  1 x 10^{5}        watts  Running Tyrannosaurus Rex
  3 x 10^{8}        watts  Nuclear power reactor
  3 x 10^{8}        watts  Moderate thunderstorm electrical power generation rate
  1.3 x 10^{9}      watts  Hoover dam
  3 x 10^{11}       watts  USA average electricity usage rate in 1986
  1 x 10^{13}       watts  Solar radio luminosity
  8 x 10^{13}       watts  Powerful nanosecond pulse laser
  1.7 x 10^{17}     watts  Insolation of Earth
  1 x 10^{23}       watts  Typical white dwarf luminosity
  3.9 x 10^{26}     watts  Solar luminosity
  1 x 10^{28}       watts  Typical X-ray luminosity of an X-ray pulsar
  2.4 x 10^{29}     watts  5 solar mass star on main sequence
  4 x 10^{30}       watts  Cygnus X-1 X-ray luminosity
  5.5 x 10^{30}     watts  Luminosity of the 20 solar mass red supergiant 
			   Betelgeuse at maximum light
  1 x 10^{31}       watts  Crab Nebula energy output
  1 x 10^{33}       watts  Rough luminosity of Eta Carinae in April 1843
  5 x 10^{35}       watts  Type II supernova peak photon luminosity
  3 x 10^{36}       watts  Milky Way
  1 x 10^{39}       watts  Typical quasar luminosity
From [AJP v60n6 Jun92 pg576]
  1 power plant = 109 W
  1 person (small) = 1 light bulb = 100 W = 2065 kilocalories/day
  1 world = 1013 W (power consumption, solar power not included)
  1 solar world = 1.7 × 1017 W (incident solar power, top of earth's atmostphere)
  1 sun = 3.8 × 1026 W (total output power)

A View from the Back of the Envelope
Comments encouraged. - Mitchell N Charity <mcharity@lcs.mit.edu>