Power (physics)

In physics, power (symbol: P) is defined as the amount of energy consumed per unit time. In the MKS system, the unit of power is the joule per second ( !s), "nown as the watt (in honor of ames #att, the eighteenth$century de%eloper of the steam engine). &or e'ample, the rate at which a light bulb con%erts electrical energy into heat and light is measured in watts(the more wattage, the more power, or e)ui%alently the more electrical energy is used per unit time.*+,*-, .nergy transfer can be used to do wor", so power is also the rate at which this wor" is performed. /he same amount of wor" is done when carrying a load up a flight of stairs whether the person carrying it wal"s or runs, but more power is e'pended during the running because the wor" is done in a shorter amount of time. /he output power of an electric motor is the product of the tor)ue the motor generates and the angular %elocity of its output shaft. /he power e'pended to mo%e a %ehicle is the product of the traction force of the wheels and the %elocity of the %ehicle. /he integral of power o%er time defines the wor" done. 0ecause this integral depends on the trajectory of the point of application of the force and tor)ue, this calculation of wor" is said to be path dependent.

Contents

+ 1nits - 2%erage power 3 Mechanical power o 3.+ Mechanical ad%antage 4 5ower in optics 6 .lectrical power 7 5ea" power and duty cycle 8 See also 9 :eferences

Units

2nsel 2dams photograph of electrical wires of the 0oulder ;am 5ower 1nits, +<4+= +<4/he dimension of power is energy di%ided by time. /he SI unit of power is the watt (#), which is e)ual to one joule per second. >ther units of power include ergs per second

(erg!s), horsepower (hp), metric horsepower (5ferdest?r"e (5S) or che%al %apeur, @A), and foot$pounds per minute. >ne horsepower is e)ui%alent to 33,BBB foot$pounds per minute, or the power re)uired to lift 66B pounds by one foot in one second, and is e)ui%alent to about 847 watts. >ther units include d0m, a relati%e logarithmic measure with + milliwatt as referenceC (food) calories per hour (often referred to as "ilocalories per hour)C 0tu per hour (0tu!h)C and tons of refrigeration (+-,BBB 0tu!h).

Average power
2s a simple e'ample, burning a "ilogram of coal releases much more energy than does detonating a "ilogram of /D/,*3, but because the /D/ reaction releases energy much more )uic"ly, it deli%ers far more power than the coal. If EW is the amount of wor" performed during a period of time of duration Et, the average power Pa%g o%er that period is gi%en by the formula

It is the a%erage amount of wor" done or energy con%erted per unit of time. /he a%erage power is often simply called FpowerF when the conte't ma"es it clear. /he instantaneous power is then the limiting %alue of the a%erage power as the time inter%al Et approaches Gero.

In the case of constant power P, the amount of wor" performed during a period of duration T is gi%en by:

In the conte't of energy con%ersion, it is more customary to use the symbol E rather than W.

Mechanical power
5ower in mechanical systems is the combination of forces and mo%ement. In particular, power is the product of a force on an object and the objectHs %elocity, or the product of a tor)ue on a shaft and the shaftHs angular %elocity. Mechanical power is also described as the time deri%ati%e of wor". In mechanics, the wor" done by a force F on an object that tra%els along a cur%e C is gi%en by the line integral:

#hich, when the path is a straight line, can also be written as:

where x defines the path C and v is the %elocity along this path. 2pplying the gradient theorem to the first e)uation (and remembering that force is the negati%e of the gradient of the potential energy) yields:

#here 2 and 0 are the beginning and end of the path along which the wor" was done. /hus the power de%eloped along a path is the time deri%ati%e of this:

In one dimension and with a constant %elocity, this can be simplified to:

In rotational systems, power is the product of the tor)ue and angular %elocity ,

where measured in radians per second. In fluid power systems such as hydraulic actuators, power is gi%en by

where p is pressure in pascals, or D!m- and Q is %olumetric flow rate in m3!s in SI units.

Mechanical advantage
If a mechanical system has no losses then the input power must e)ual the output power. /his pro%ides a simple formula for the mechanical ad%antage of the system. Iet the input power to a de%ice be a force FA acting on a point that mo%es with %elocity vA and the output power be a force FB acts on a point that mo%es with %elocity vB. If there are no losses in the system, then

and the mechanical ad%antage of the system is gi%en by

2 similar relationship is obtained for rotating systems, where TA and A are the tor)ue and angular %elocity of the input and TB and B are the tor)ue and angular %elocity of the output. If there are no losses in the system, then

which yields the mechanical ad%antage

/hese relations are important because they define the ma'imum performance of a de%ice in terms of %elocity ratios determined by its physical dimensions. See for e'ample gear ratios.

Power in optics
In optics, or radiometry, the term power sometimes refers to radiant flu', the a%erage rate of energy transport by electromagnetic radiation, measured in watts. In other conte'ts, it refers to optical power, the ability of a lens or other optical de%ice to focus light. It is measured in diopters (in%erse meters), and e)uals the in%erse of the focal length of the optical de%ice.

Electrical power
Main article: .lectric power /he instantaneous electrical power P deli%ered to a component is gi%en by

where P(t) is the instantaneous power, measured in watts (joules per second) V(t) is the potential difference (or %oltage drop) across the component, measured in %olts I(t) is the current through it, measured in amperes If the component is a resistor with time$in%ariant %oltage to current ratio, then:

where

is the resistance, measured in ohms.

Peak power and duty cycle

In a train of identical pulses, the instantaneous power is a periodic function of time. /he ratio of the pulse duration to the period is e)ual to the ratio of the a%erage power to the pea" power. It is also called the duty cycle (see te't for definitions). In the case of a periodic signal instantaneous power power is simply defined by: . /he pea" power is not always readily measurable, howe%er, and the measurement of the a%erage power is more commonly performed by an instrument. If one defines the energy per pulse as: of period , li"e a train of identical pulses, the . /he peak

is also a periodic function of period

then the a%erage power is:

. >ne may define the pulse length such that so that the ratios

are e)ual. /hese ratios are called the duty cycle of the pulse train.