Got some really nice info to share with the rest of you guys, that are into science. If you've never sat down to think, just how much "power" am I using to do this thing I'm doing right now compared to something else in the world? Like, how much raw physical power am I using when I am typing on this keyboard vs to someone pitching a baseball. If you've never thought of it the slightest.. here's a list to get you started on thinking.
[m]Table1. Energy Yield of various sources.[/m]
Courtesy: Howard Keller, Lawrenceville, NJ - reprinted in The Physics Teacher, Vol 30, Nov. 1992
What's a joule?
Picture the energy to hold a kiwi in your hand, and move it 1 meter (3 feet) straight up in the air. That's 1 joule.
The following are in millions/ billions of joules for the ones higher up the list. This is a scale of from 0-68, how where they rank in terms of power exertion.
Source
Order of Magnitude (in Joules)
Big Bang
68
Radio Galaxy Emission
55
E=MC squared of the Sun (the energy from the total mass times the speed of light for the size)
55
Energetic central regions of our galaxies
46
Total energy given off by "neutrinos" in 1987 supernova
46
Total energy available to neutron star having their starquakes
44
Typical Supernova (when a galaxy explodes)
43
E=MC squared of the Earth
42
Total "luminosity" of the Milky Way Galaxy
38
Crab nebula radiation (supernova that exploded)
38
a neutron star's starquake gamma ray emission (in one-tenth of a second)
37
Giant impact theory that we theorized how the Moon was created
31
Earth's Rotation speed
29
Sun's luminosity (in one second)
26
Infrared heat from Io (Jupiter's Moon) in one flux year
21
Total earth's Electricy Demands estimate by the year 2050 AD
21
10 day hurricane
20
The world's arsenal of strategic nuclear weapons in total power (up until 1989)
19
Yearly power production of the United States
19
Volcanic detonation
19
Largest recorded earthquake (Japan, 1933 8.9 Ritcher Scale)
18
Largest Hydrogen Bomb
17
San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 (7.0 Ritcher Scale)
17
Energy to create a Meteor Crater in Arizona
16
100 MegaWatt power station in one year
16
Mt. St. Helens explosion in 1980
16
Typical Tornado or Thunderstorm
15
Energy to put a space shuttle in orbit (rockets etc)
13
Hiroshima A-Bomb in WW2
13
Lightning flash that you see in the atmosphere
10
One year of electricity per average house (1992)
10
Fully loaded 747 jet at 600mph
10
Daily resting metabolism of a humpback whale
9
Human Daily diet
7
100W Lightbulb left on for 1 week
7
2 ton truck travelingn at 75mph
6
1 pound (453.6 grams) of TNT
6
Seismic "Explosion waves" from 1 pound of TNT
5
1 AA battery - alkaline
3
Baseball pitch from a Major League pitcher
2
Tennis ball hit with very hard force
1
1 joule (on this list)
0
Striking a keyboard key
-2
Flea hop
-7
