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The joule (/ dʒ uː l / JOOL, or / dʒ aʊ l / JOWL; symbol: J) is the unit of energy in the International System of Units (SI). [1] In terms of SI base units, one joule corresponds to one kilogram-square metre per square second (1 J = 1 kg⋅m 2 ⋅s −2).
The British imperial units and U.S. customary units for both energy and work include the foot-pound force (1.3558 J), the British thermal unit (BTU) which has various values in the region of 1055 J, the horsepower-hour (2.6845 MJ), and the gasoline gallon equivalent (about 120 MJ). Log-base-10 of the ratios between various measures of energy
Energy – in physics, this is an indirectly observed quantity often understood as the ability of a physical system to do work on other physical systems. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Since work is defined as a force acting through a distance (a length of space), energy is always equivalent to the ability to exert force (a pull or a push) against an object that ...
As the unit name suggests, it is the product of pounds for the unit of force and feet for the unit of displacement. One joule is approximately equal to 0.7376 ft-lbs. [16] [17] Non-SI units of work include the newton-metre, erg, the foot-pound, the foot-poundal, the kilowatt hour, the litre-atmosphere, and the horsepower-hour.
Thermodynamic work is one of the principal kinds of process by which a thermodynamic system can interact with and transfer energy to its surroundings. This results in externally measurable macroscopic forces on the system's surroundings, which can cause mechanical work, to lift a weight, for example, [1] or cause changes in electromagnetic, [2] [3] [4] or gravitational [5] variables.
According to the second law, in a reversible heat transfer, an element of heat transferred, , is the product of the temperature (), both of the system and of the sources or destination of the heat, with the increment of the system's conjugate variable, its entropy (): [1]
The second law can be conceptually stated [69] as follows: Matter and energy have the tendency to reach a state of uniformity or internal and external equilibrium, a state of maximum disorder (entropy). Real non-equilibrium processes always produce entropy, causing increased disorder in the universe, while idealized reversible processes produce ...
The SI unit of power is the watt, one joule per second. Electric power, like mechanical power , is the rate of doing work , measured in watts , and represented by the letter P . The term wattage is used colloquially to mean "electric power in watts."