Comments on: Attention Stargazers: The Universe Shines Twice as Brightly as We Think. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2008/05/15/attention-stargazers-the-universe-shines-twice-as-brightly-as-we-think/ Quirky, funny, and surprising science news from the edge of the known universe. Sat, 06 Sep 2008 16:37:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: Dean Pigeon http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2008/05/15/attention-stargazers-the-universe-shines-twice-as-brightly-as-we-think/#comment-7109 Dean Pigeon Mon, 26 May 2008 20:10:30 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2008/05/15/attention-stargazers-the-universe-shines-twice-as-brightly-as-we-think/#comment-7109 After looking up how much electriciy mankind used in 2005, it seems this article is refering to 300 times the amount of energy consumed by mankind in one year. A Watt is a Joule per Second. A Joule is a unit of energy. A watt is energy produced per amount of time passed, just like velocity is a rate of distance traveled per time passed. Asking how many watts are produced per month is like asking how many miles per hour you went per month. What you really want to ask is, how many Joules are produced per month? Not how many Watts. In the same way, you would ask how many miles you went per month, not how many M.P.H. you went per month. A Watt is a unit of power (power is not energy, power is the RATE at which energy is being produced). 5 quadrillion Joules per Second, multiplied by any amount of time in seconds, tells you how much energy was produced by an average cubic light year of the universe in that amount of time. For example, to find the energy produced by one average cubic light year of the universe, you would take 5,000,000,000,000,000 and multiply it by 365 * 24 * 60 * 60 (which is 31,536,000 seconds). This gives you 1.5768 * 10^23 Joules of energy produced in one year by the average cubic light year of the universe. After looking up how much electriciy mankind used in 2005, it seems this article is refering to 300 times the amount of energy consumed by mankind in one year.

A Watt is a Joule per Second. A Joule is a unit of energy. A watt is energy produced per amount of time passed, just like velocity is a rate of distance traveled per time passed. Asking how many watts are produced per month is like asking how many miles per hour you went per month. What you really want to ask is, how many Joules are produced per month? Not how many Watts. In the same way, you would ask how many miles you went per month, not how many M.P.H. you went per month.

A Watt is a unit of power (power is not energy, power is the RATE at which energy is being produced). 5 quadrillion Joules per Second, multiplied by any amount of time in seconds, tells you how much energy was produced by an average cubic light year of the universe in that amount of time. For example, to find the energy produced by one average cubic light year of the universe, you would take 5,000,000,000,000,000 and multiply it by 365 * 24 * 60 * 60 (which is 31,536,000 seconds). This gives you 1.5768 * 10^23 Joules of energy produced in one year by the average cubic light year of the universe.

]]> By: Kin http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2008/05/15/attention-stargazers-the-universe-shines-twice-as-brightly-as-we-think/#comment-7108 Kin Tue, 20 May 2008 16:04:47 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2008/05/15/attention-stargazers-the-universe-shines-twice-as-brightly-as-we-think/#comment-7108 That's a little confusing. 300 times the average amount of energy consumed by all humankind...yearly? And they don't say the energy the universe produces. Is that by per second, per month, per year that it produces 5 quadrillion watts. But, still, interesting That’s a little confusing. 300 times the average amount of energy consumed by all humankind…yearly? And they don’t say the energy the universe produces. Is that by per second, per month, per year that it produces 5 quadrillion watts.

But, still, interesting

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