What is the Difference Between Energy and Power?

   The study of the concepts of energy and power is one of the cornerstones of the science of Physics. Think of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein when you think of Physics. Don't forget Archimedes. It is easy to say "Energy is the potential to do work".  What  do we mean by "work"?

    Probably the first scientific definition of work came from the Greek philosopher Archimedes, force times distance. One example would be to lift a pound of weight one foot. This is one foot pound of work. If you have to move a one ton box from one side of a room to the other, it takes less work to move it if it is on wheels than it does if you have to slide it across the floor(unless the floor is very slippery).

   Power is the rate at which work is done. One horse power is 33,000 foot pounds per minute (depending on how you define horsepower).  A watt is another measure of power, and a Kilowatt hour is another measure of energy. A physicist will have a much more complex understanding of what energy is. The science behind the atom bomb comes from that understanding.
 
   Consider 20 gallons of gasoline. Gasoline has energy stored in it (mostly originally derived from sunlight by ancient primitive plants). All methods of extracting that energy are less than perfect. Fuel cells are probably the most efficient, while internal combustion engines are pretty inefficient. Any system that burns gasoline is limited in its efficiency.

   Modern hybrid cars may be able to travel 2,000 miles on that 20 gallons of gas. A 1950 King Midget car will be able to go well over 1,000 miles on it at maybe 40 mph, while a top quality drag racer will be able to do a few quarter mile runs on it in a few seconds per run. What would be really nice is a powerful car that is efficient. An electric car with fuel cells has that possibility.

   A fuel cell is like an electric battery that converts the the energy stored in various fuels directly into electrical energy. A fuel cell provides electricity as long as it has fuel. The efficiency rates are high but the power output of fuel cells still needs improving . This sounds like a subject for another blog.

Since I am trying to get this blog going so that I can make a little (or even a lot) of money I need to write something with keywords in it. I need to mention SEO, solar energy, solar power, green, dogs, foster dogs,
environment, and all the Stuff I am passionate about. Proof of God is another good one. Family and children are good topics. These are all topics which will be covered in this blog. Of course, when I say green, I am thinking about energy, industry, homes, farming, and any number of topics which can either be environmentally friendly or not.

Let me know if you have any particular topics along these lines you particularly want to hear about. I will also be willing to consider submissions by other writers.

I seem to have figured out how to correct first posting

  Perhaps this is a very minor thought, but did you know that a regular microwave oven is just a box when it isn't running? It makes very little difference whether something is sitting outside the oven or in it once it goes"ding". If you just microwaved some water, you may want to let it sit a few seconds in case it is superheated. You may have heated water to above the boiling point and moving it may cause it to suddenly boil. Otherwise, if someone is waiting to heat their coffee cup and you just cooked some noodles and the noodles need to sit for 90 seconds, they don't have to rest in the oven.

   Perhaps the reason so many people are telling Al Gore that he shouldn't be building an Ark for all those animals is somehow related to this. I realize that most people may have trouble seeing the connection, so I will drop a few hints. Common belief is that Noah was ridiculed for building the Ark, but there is no biblical record of that concept. Since the story of Noah is one version of an ancient story that has been part of human oral history for a very long time and the folk version has the builder of the ark being ridiculed it is likely that he was. The fact is that in the popular version of the story he is, so let's stick with it.

   The point is that  people are frequently not too bright when it comes to simple science. The history of the greenhouse effect on Earth and its effect on the weather is extremely well established fact.  The only realistic debate about the effect of Mankind's influence on global warming since the beginning of the industrial age is whether it is totally the influence of mankind or perhaps as little as 80%.  The current scientific debate is whether or not we have passed the tipping point.

   About 10 or 11 millennia ago there was a tipping point that occurred  due to a release of methane caused by undersea landslides which resulted from the gradual global warming associated with the ending of the last ice age, a process that is still ongoing. The sudden warming associated with that methane incident resulted in a rise in sea levels at a precipitous rate. Numerous mythologies from around the world tell of a great flood. The Golden Age of mankind ended. The Garden of Eden is under 300 feet of water. Civilization was probably set back several thousand years.

   That the Human race is facing world wide rise of sea levels is inevitable. Whether it takes another 10,000 years for sea levels to rise another several hundred feet or if it only takes 100 years is pretty much in our hands. If we continue our wicked ways of poisoning our atmosphere we can expect that the Power which rules over us will let our race once again feel the consequences  or our sins.

   If you insist of only thinking of that Power as natural law, we are still on the same page. God knows his name. Frankly, God is god by any name. The Bible says that He knows when people call upon him by any name. He (or She) also knows when we don't. Don't don't.

Just Some Thoughts

   I was just thinking about some of my favorite books and movies. I noticed that I was fond of books and movies classified as  Dystopian . When I studied these books in college they were classified as Utopian along with those stories now classified as Utopian. I think that probably this is because in the case of idealized societies beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Adolph Hitler thought that he was building a Utopia, not a Dystopia.

  I am still trying to figure out how to edit the stuff I have already posted to correct the problems I have had with a couple of posts.