What is a Watt???

[Derek]

(01-12-2011 06:29 AM)Richard T. Fowler Wrote:  An additional source of confusion is when we speak of "radiation", it is possible to mean EITHER power OR energy, and
one has to use the context of the discussion to discern what we're talking about.


I think that those who have worked such problems in the past tend to assume that
others automatically know whether the discussion is about power or energy.
(In this case, it was about power, but even if one knew that, one could still be confused by the fact that,
since we are speaking of an *average* power for a period of time, the average power varies directly with total energy.)

Happy thinking, then! On to the next question ....

RTF

I wonder if another penny has just dropped.
I thought "We" had been talking about "radiation" in relation to the Global Energy Flow W m-2 K&T type plots,
as commonly referred to as Global energy budgets. I assumed we were talking about energy flows.
ie, "Watt-seconds"

In the case of the P equation, I would assume now Watts is used in the context of power.
ie, Watts.

A seemingly small but actually quite important difference.