Talk:Joule

Metric or Standard measurements

So, coming from an American, the practical examples were nice, but almost all of them were in the metric system. I know the metric system, but it's hard for me to imaging dropping a kilogram or running a kilometer, or what have you. So maybe conversions? I guess I could do that. That's all. :) 24.16.169.158 (talk) 07:01, 19 July 2012 (UTC)

Conversions

The Conversion factor : TJ/kcal 4,187E-09 is used in the UNFCCC. Can anybody find out where that factor and the factor used in wikipedia came from = Units defined in terms of the joule include:

   * 1 thermochemical calorie = 4.184 J
   * 1 International Table calorie = 4.1868 J?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by SvenAERTS (talk • contribs) 02:43, 25 October 2008 (UTC) 

Thought I would tie up this loose end. The number shown in the infobox is the reciprocal, or ${\frac {1}{4.184}}$, given for the number of kcal_th per J. — JamesEG (talk) 04:49, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

under the earth's gravity

Unless you are Neil Armstrong et al probably you have no choice.

But if you really want to pick nits: You could be located in an elevator in Empire State building where the cables have all broken. Or perhaps riding a roller coaster.

Egil 09:26 Apr 9, 2003 (UTC)

Time to raise apple misleading

this article sucks The article currently says: "One joule is also the work done to produce power of one watt for one second, such as when somebody takes one second to lift the small apple mentioned above through one metre under the earth's gravity."

Surely this is misleading. Assuming that the apple is at rest before and after its gain in altitude, the joule of energy is required because of the increase in its gravitational potential energy. If the time taken is to be relevant, then we would have to be talking about an apple undergoing a net acceleration, which should be in a horizontal direction to simplify things.

It is misleading. The time to lift that apple is irrelevant; for work against gravity, W = mgh (in the example, (0.102 kg)(9.8 m/s²)(1 m) = 1 J). No time factor involved. The connection should not be to the joule as a watt-second, but rather to the joule as a newton-meter. You could make a different example involving acceleration, of course. Gene Nygaard 13:06, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

Yes, in fact specifying a time to raise the apple's potential energy gives you a value of power (e.g. J/s). Not sure what the original sentence was trying to demonstrate, but it is wrong as it currently stands (or belongs in the article on the Watt).

Too little data and too many sections

This article contains too many sections yet too little data and I've made some rearrangements in the previous edit. The article needs more useful data rather than just conversions. Perhaps someone could add practical examples of use, or more history regarding the subject (e.g. Metre).

Should the definitions of Kilojoule and Megajoule be in a different article?

• In my opinion, kilojoule and megajoule shouldn't need defining further than the table of, and article on, metric prefixes. Kilo always multiplies a unit by 10^3 and mega 10^6. We shouldn't make it appear unit-specific -- it may confuse some people. In my opinion, all explicit definitions of megajoule, gigajoule, kilonoule nanojoule and so on, are all unnecessary. That kiwi guy (talk) 00:48, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Very good point - I confess, I'd never looked at that part. Would you like to fix it? NebY (talk) 09:04, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Electron-Volt conversion

It would be useful to add a conversion to electron volts here for the aspiring or forgetful nuclear physicist. 1 [J] = 6.241506363 x 10^18 [eV] AtomBum 01:22, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

I second that motion! It is done. mastodon 09:59, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

Where you get that conversion cause all the refrences I've seen is 1J = 1.602E-19 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.202.140.227 (talk) 19:22, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

1eV = 1.6E-19 J and 1J = 6e18 eV. They're reciprocals! :-) --Steve (talk) 19:56, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

My attempt at clarification

I recently attempted to clqual to: ...

• 4.184 J – 1 thermochemical calorie (exact)
• 4.1868 J – 1 International Table calorie (exact)"

That does not make sense in English. Also the abbreviation "c." is used in some places, presumably to mean approximately, but not in others where the conversion factor is just as approximate. The usage should be consistent and it seems to me better to just say "approximately" than use an abbreviation that many readers may not be familiar with. In any case, summary reversion without discussion does not seem appropriate for a serious edit. --agr 23:09, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

Nor is just throwing out those two lines because you cannot figure out how to reword them appropriate to a serious edit. The point is that this is the direction in which the conversion can be expressed as a terminating decimal fraction, without resorting to common fraction with a decimal fraction denominator such as 1/4.184, or even less comprehensibly reducing that to a proper fraction of 125/523. Gene Nygaard 00:12, 17 November 2005 (UTC)

I didn't throw them out, I put them in a separate section in an attempt to make it clear what was being said:

"Also:

• 1 thermochemical calorie = 4.184 J (exact)
• 1 International Table calorie = 4.1868 J (exact)"

Look, we all make hasty mistakes occasionally, but please at least read an edit carefully before reverting it. --agr 00:58, 17 November 2005 (UTC)

Joules--KiloJoules

I came to this page looking for the conversion for kilojoules to joules. I couldn't remember which power of ten they were related by. seeing as you have all those other conversions (including beer!) might you add kJ to J?

1 kJ = 1000 J. There was a table of all the SI conversions, but it provoked considerable controversy. I never understood why it did harm if it was at the end. Also, I'd raise the question of whether most of the conversions wouldn't be clearer the other way around, e.g. kilowatt-hour = 3600000 J vs 2.7778×10−7 kilowatt-hour, human generates 100 J per second, etc. Most people have no intuitive sense of scientific notation, if they understand it at all. Doing so would also make it clear that litre-atmosphere and BTU are both about a kilojoule, a useful rule of thumb. The apple rule could be stated separately (and we only need one version). --agr 12:24, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

joule and newton

The following quote is confusion joule and newton. I'll delete it. "One joule is also: The work required to accelerate one kilogram at a rate of 1 m·s-2 " Bo Jacoby 09:05, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

No, it's not. It's the work required to accelerate one kilogram to a speed of ${\sqrt {2}}$ m·s^-1, regardless of the rate of acceleration. One kilogram that is accelerated at a rate of 1 m·s-2 corresponds to a force of one newton. --Shastra 16:57, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

==not sure what to do with this - should this be deleted?

the energy required to lift a small apple 10 centimetres (1/10 metre) by converting the heat that the quiet person produced, on a hundredth of second, in work, with 10% efficiency.

Yes, please remove it or change it. I don't know exactly how our muscles convert food into mechanical energy, but when it happens we use up more food energy than the basic 100 joules of "idling" energy that is converted to heat. So the calculation would be different. I think a more understandable example would be something like "one joule is the energy expended while walking 5 millimeters" (if that number is correct). --Shastra 17:47, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Joules & People

I noticed this randomly, but unless I missed something, if a person (who is still) expended 1 joule worth of energy in heat every one-hundreth of a second, they would burn (((1 * 100) * 3600) * 24) = 8,640,000 (kilo)calories per day on heat alone. Also, is it correct to say that we (humans) 'produce' energy when we do things? I think it's more correct to say that we 'use' energy. HunterXI 21:02, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

That's 8,640,000 joules. To get kilocalories ("food calories"), multiply by the conversion factor 2.390×10^-4 and you get 2064.96 kcal. And yes, we don't really produce energy. We convert the chemical binding energy in food molecules into heat energy and mechanical energy. --Shastra 17:47, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Person, droplet, beer

1 joule is approximately equal to: [...]

• 1/100th of the energy a person can get by drinking a single droplet of beer.

Er, no. Not without a quantifiable scientific definition of "person", "droplet" and "beer". This one should be deleted, no?

That statement surprised me also at first. But it does say approximately... And the definition of "person" is irrelevant, as long as it is a creature that can oxidize the hydrocarbons contained in beer. For the definition of "beer", it's a reasonable assumption that it's a beer brand within the very common range of 1600-1900 kJ/liter. The definition of "droplet" is more fuzzy, but calculating backwards the beer droplet size must be about 50 microliters (a ~5mm sphere) to contain 100 Joules of food energy. Perhaps this droplet size should be mentioned. --Shastra 07:43, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

When you say "1600-1900 kJ/L" are you talking about an American "Lite" beer which is less than 6% alcohol or an European beer which is over 12% alcohol? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.186.80.92 (talk) 06:15, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

This is the "typical" section. These are typical measures. A typical beer has somewhere around 1700kJ/L. Not lite beer, not low-cal beer, not Elephant beer. Just a typical beer. Also, I like how Shastra's working backwards arrived at the volume of the droplet to be precisely the value of a metric drop (unit). Droplets also have typical sizes, and in fact, a "drop" has various similar measures that compare favourably to the size of a droplet of liquid, like beer. A typical droplet of typical beer contains about 100J. To describe the size of the droplet completely spoils the point of the section! LightYear (talk) 23:10, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

Is there a reason "beer" was changed to "water"? I don't believe water has any Calories, or at least not nearly as much as beer, so this should be reverted. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.85.239.112 (talk) 14:54, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

Done - you're quite right. Can we protect a single sentence? rv'ing the same sentence every month or so is getting tiresome. LightYear (talk) 06:12, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Here's an alternate way to come to the same result as Shastra got earlier. One 12 oz can of Labatt Blue has 153 Calories (remember that 1 Calorie = 1000 calories). A metric drop is defined as 50 microliters. ${\frac {153\,\mathrm {Calories} }{12.0\,\mathrm {oz} }}\cdot 50.0\,\mathrm {\mu L} =90.2\,\mathrm {J} \approx 100\,\mathrm {J}$ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.247.181.100 (talk) 05:12, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Surface area

Are joules related to surface area? Someone is telling me that a joule is an amount of energy per centimeter of surface area, which is different than what I understand, but I've never had a physics class. Some guy 16:26, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

The talk page is not for asking physics questions, but no. LightYear 01:24, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Introduction

I've changed the introduction to match the style used in newton. I picked this style because it addresses a few issues: strict, succinct definition; etymology; and unit status. I then followed with the existing practical definition, making a few changes: made the distinction between J and Nm more obvious; removed jarring juxtaposition of "absolute minimum" and "rough guide"; and removed "just under" from "just under 10cm" because its wrong and unnecessary (we're talking understatement by ~0.2cm depending on elevation). LightYear 01:24, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Pronunciation

Somebody should put the pronounciation at the begining of the article.

It's pronounced "joole", but not eveybody knows that (I didn't for quite an while actually).

I would put it myself, but I don't know how to write with those fancy phonetic letters. Nor would I know which ones to use.

You know what... I am gonna just write "(pronounced 'joole')" and one of you guys fix that later. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 200.164.220.194 (talk) 09:37, 29 January 2007 (UTC).

Good point, thanks for the contribution. I've updated it to the standard IPA definition. Slightly uncomfortable about the multiple parentheses making it difficult to parse the first sentence, but think it is probably okay. --LightYear 01:36, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Maybe a silly question, but why French pronunciation when James Prescott Joule was an Englishman? --Kompik 17:51, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Seems like a good question to me, but I'm in no position to give you an answer. I do have a counter question for you though - how would it be pronounced by an Englishman? --LightYear 02:46, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

I've tried Google search [1]. Merriam-Webster mentions both pronunciations: dzu:l and dzaul. First glance at the first results from this google search suggests that most dictionaries use the pronunciation dzu:l. Wikipedia article James Prescott Joule mentions

It seems that the pronunciation of the name Joule was not really standardized during the scientist's lifetime and that his family's brewery even used this confusion for a rhyming ad: Whatever you call it... it's GOOD!

--Kompik 11:26, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

What?? I know that it is pronounced like DJOOL with the d in the beggining and no e on the end.--Simpaklimp (talk) 10:33, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

I've almost always heard people say /dʒuːl/, which is the pronunciation I've always used, and I've read that that's how James Prescott Joule probably pronounced his surname (though some members of his family may have said /dʒaʊl/), so I think said pronunciation is in all likelihood appropriate.--Solomonfromfinland (talk) 02:47, 18 July 2016 (UTC)

A new pronunciation /dʒaʊl/ (before the old /dʒuːl/) with two good but old references was just added to the top of the article. I have (working as a physicist) never heard this pronunciation and suspect that it is mainly historical. That seems to be backed by the Marriam-Webster [2] calling this pronunciation non-standard, giving the /dʒuːl/ as the standard one. I would like the article to not include the /dʒaʊl/ pronunciation or refer to it as historical or non-standard. Any thoughts on this? Ulflund (talk) 01:57, 6 June 2019 (UTC)

I am the one that added the "new" /dʒaʊl/ pronunciation. Like Ulflund says, it is backed by multiple good references. It is how the Joule unit is pronounced in parts of the world today, it's not just historical. Sure, this pronunciation is non-standard but how is that relevant if the earliest references suggest that that's how the man pronounced his own last name? Yonibaciu (talk) 14:01, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

This article is not about the person, but about the unit. How he pronounced his name has little importance if that is not how the unit is pronounced today. Ulflund (talk) 05:08, 6 September 2019 (UTC)

The reference I found from 1901 is about the pronunciation of the unit, not the man. And as I wrote before, it is still being pronounced "jawl" in many countries today. Yonibaciu (talk) 21:04, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

JOWL / JAWL should be considered the primary pronunciation because that's how it was originally pronounced at least in 1901 (see reference at A new English dictionary on historical principles. The Clarendon press. January 1901. p. 606.) If someone finds an example earlier than 1901 for JOOL then, by all means, reverse the pronunciations order. Till then, please leave the correct one in place - JOWL then JOOL.

Is the description missing something?

The description says "a force of one newton moving an object one meter along the direction of the force". Shouldn't that be "a force of one newton moving a one-kilogram object one meter along the direction of the force"? --Musanim 16:43, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

No. The newton already takes care of the weight of the object. It could be a 100kg object being pushed on non-ideal rollers, or a 0.1kg object being pushed vertically, as long as the resulting force is 1 newton. LightYear 03:03, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm not getting something here. What if a force of 1 newton were applied to an object with very little mass; wouldn't it just accelerate more quickly than a more massive object (and traverse 1 meter in much less time)?--Musanim 01:35, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Indeed, one newton applied to a very light object will have that object moving at a terrific (change of) pace by the end of the metre. The kinetic energy (0.5mv^2) gained by the object (1J) during the event will still be the same as that of a slower moving, heavy object (which underwent the same 1N force along a metre). Joule is a measure of energy, not velocity or power (both of which involve time, as you are expecting). There's probably a better forum for this - study some physics sources, and the initiallly counter-intuitive concept will click for you. LightYear 05:21, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

The newton unit already takes into account the mass of the object. F = ma, and 1 newton == 1 kilogram * 1 m/s^2. So a given force, say one newton, can accelerate a large object slowly, or a small object quickly. Foobaz·o< 06:01, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

After thinking about this for a while, I finally got it. At first, it seemed that a 1 kilogram object being pushed with a 1 newton force for 1.414 seconds to move it a meter had to involve more work than a 1 gram object being pushed with a 1 newton force for 0.0447 seconds to move it a meter. But then I considered what might apply such a force, and I imagined a second object being acted on by gravity (pulling at right angles to the first object, through a pulley). Since the second weight falls the same distance in both cases, the same work is done. QED. Thanks for your help.--Musanim 01:30, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

The lede is actually misleading in talking about moving a mass or object at all. It is a 1 N force acting over 1 meter, simple as that. Doesn't matter what the force is pushing on. It doesn't need to move a mass, maybe we are stretching a spring or something. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:480:91:FF00:0:0:0:15 (talk) 18:51, 24 May 2022 (UTC)

SI multiples

I have nominated Template:SI multiples (transcluded or subst'ed in this article) for deletion on WP:TFD. Han-Kwang (t) 16:07, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

• This issue arose because of a dispute (see discussion here) over the inclusion of table of SI-prefixed versions of the kelvin in the Kelvin article. Somone didn’t see the value of it and simply deleted it (notwithstanding that an editors’ note warned of other articles that linked directly to the table). That table lists the full range of the kelvin’s SI-prefixed forms. An individual SI table placed in each article on units of measure serves a purpose that a general link to SI prefixes can't do: as demonstrated in the Kelvin article, it shows which prefixed versions of the unit in question (in bold) are the common ones that one might want to limit themselves to to avoid using those that are overly obscure.

  There’s another—and more important—consideration: These tables prevent bloat in articles by avoiding having to explain units of measure in each article that uses them. For instance, the Absolute zero article (as do other articles) might mention a 450 nk record-cold temperature. Note the “nk” link in this just-cited example. It takes the reader to the table where one can see the magnitude of the value in relationship to others. The same thing is done when an article uses “nm” (nanometer) or “µg” (microgram) in a technical article or . Articles would become bloated if they each had to individually explain every prefixed form of a unit of measure. Yes, one can use scientific notation. But this sort of stuff quickly starts going over the heads of many readers depending on the nature of the article and how soon in the article it begins using scientific notation; that is, after all, one of the purposes of SI prefixes: to simplify. These tables have been in articles for years now and have served a most useful purpose. Just because someone doesn’t see the value in a template is no justification for deleting it. If they don’t see the value of it, don’t use it. And please stop deleting or truncating the tables; it breaks links to it in other articles. Greg L (my talk) 21:06, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

• Related to this, I don't agree with having the different sections for various metric prefixes for this unit. I do not see any of this information on any other metric unit's page. It is not specific to the joule, these prefixes can be applied to any metric unit so I believe that it is cluttering and potentially misleading to have these listed -- it makes it look like the kilojoule is a different unit from the megajoule or nanojoule, when really, the joule is the unit, and (since this is the metric system) a prefix can be applied to multiply it by a power of ten. The little bits of trivia I don't mind, however the listing of joule prefixed with (not even the entirety of the metric prefixes) is simply pointless and misleading. Those reading about the metric system who land on this page should read the The Encyclopedia's page on metric prefixes. That kiwi guy (talk) 05:56, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Book mass and height?

"The amount of energy released if a single textbook is dropped." I have had textbooks which have mass from 0.5 kg to 5 kg.

That's nice. And what was your typical textbook weight, approximately? Somehow, I think the 5kg textbook was something of an anomaly! LightYear (talk) 23:10, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

And, how about the height of this drop? I know that e=mgh should hold here on earth near sea level. Reddwarf2956 (talk) 06:54, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

What height would a textbook typically be dropped at? About the height of a human hand? Working backwards, it looks like they might be using a light textbook (0.5kg for a paperback is reasonable) and a small drop (20cm from hand to desk, or bag to floor, say). These seem like reasonable, typical values for weight and drop distance, and the result is a handy story for appreciating a joule. This is not the precision section, this is the approximate, "real life" section! And, incidentally, the statement has a reference if you want to chase it up with its original author. LightYear (talk) 23:10, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

Effect of gravity?

Does moving one newton one meter along a direction expand 1 joule in space as well as on Earth? In other words, does gravity make a difference? There's no mention of that here, and it something that your average reader will want to know ... I'm no physicist. 67.189.104.78 (talk) 19:54, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

You wont expend a joule, because the movement wont require a Newton, unless the force acts against resistance. The resistance is often gravity but it doesn't have to be. You could be on the moon and pushing an object through honey. Does that clear it up for you? If you could rephrase it in your own words, perhaps we could come up with a worthwhile inclusion for the article. LightYear (talk) 00:35, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Pronunciation

how should it be pronounced?

DJOOL —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.132.144.43 (talk) 10:32, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Formula

Why not this?

$\,1\,\mathrm {J} =1\,\mathrm {kg} \cdot \mathrm {m} ^{2}\cdot \mathrm {s} ^{-2}$

The way it currently is makes it look as though the metres and seconds have some special connexion (which they do when it comes to kinetic energy but not always). JIMp _talk·cont 23:59, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

No argument against the change JIMp _talk·cont 22:28, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

I know the use of negative exponents is liked by many but to me it is a very ugly notation. My problem is that it hides the division symbol which is the fundamental base of the unit. To people learning physics for the first time this can be pretty confusing and is a little extra unneeded complexity, at least leave in both versions of the definition.

Another point, maybe the definition should mention the Newton second. I know the standard definition is 1 joule = 1 Newton meter, but the Newton second is almost identical because 1 Newton meter always takes 1 second. - I think this nicely highlights the relationship between joules and watts and Newtons. Lucien86 (talk) 04:07, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

This doesn't make sense - in what way does 1 Nm "always take 1 s"? Djr32 (talk) 09:52, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

How big is a Foe

A Foe is enormous - it is the energy expended by a supernova explosion - our sun will expend about 1.2 Foes during its lifetime. Therefore the joule is miniscule in comparison - so 1J = 10^-44 Foe is correct (not 1J = 10^44 Foe - just think about the maths) Martinvl (talk) 06:33, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Fluence

Fluence is a perfectly valid, though little used unit of measure. It has dimensions J/m², so in my view has a place in the list. Martinvl (talk) 21:45, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

So should we list anything with the dimensions of joules times or over something? ― A._di_M. (formerly Army1987) 08:32, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

I think he means the term "fluence" is little used. The concept of radiant exposure is used all the time. I use it a lot in my own work on radiative forcing in climatology. Vaughan Pratt (talk) 17:00, 11 July 2019 (UTC)

Wrong description

Euuu ... isn't the start of this page ENTIRELY wrong ? Take 1 vacuum, take no fiction, once i get the mass going, it will move indefinite ... What COULD be correct is that 1 Joule is the force required to accelerate 1KG to 1m per second. THAT makes sense... If you don't believe me, i recommend looking it up on GOOD scientific source. Or use the SI definition, clearly states kg * m² / s² AKA: acceleration of 1 kg to 1 meter per second. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.196.157.145 (talk)

Kilojoule example modification

I'm modifying the kilojoule example slightly from "One kilojoule is about the amount of solar radiation received by one square metre of the Earth in one second" to "One kilojoule is about the maximum amount of solar radiation received by one square metre of the Earth in one second." If you look at this graph, for example, of a climate station in Death Valley, CA, you'll see that solar radiation is not usually as high as 1000 W/m^2 even during peak daylight hours. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ‎Eggsyntax (talk • contribs) 14:19, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

error in body heat example

1j per 1/100 sec is 2057 kcal per day.....not likely  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikl999 (talk • contribs) 11:33, 30 November 2010 (UTC) 

No this is perfectly reasonable. 1 kcal = 1 Cal (The capital "C" is equivalent to kcal and is what is meant by nutritionists when they use the word calorie.) The average caloric intake for human adults is somewhere around 2600 Calories (kcal) for men and 1900 kcal for women (http://www.cancer.org/docroot/SPC/content/SPC_1_A_Low_Carb_Diet_to_Prevent_Cancer.asp). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.192.39.100 (talk) 09:43, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

It's too high by a factor of ~2, see Basal metabolic rate. The article says "person at rest". We're not at rest the whole day (I hope!). Also, you can easily eat more calories than the energy you expend: The difference goes into the toilet and/or weight-gain. Therefore I'm changing it to 1 joule every 1/50th second. --Steve (talk) 20:09, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Practical Examples

The fourth practical example is wrong. A 50 kg person accelerating at 0.02 m/s^2 will expend 1 joule of energy while covering 1 meter of distance. Mass times velocity is momentum, not energy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.192.39.100 (talk) 09:25, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

The example is correct, it says "kinetic energy". Kinetic energy is 1/2 * mass * velocity^2.

Actually I don't find the kinetic energy examples very helpful, because I don't think many people have an intuitive feel for "kinetic energy" as such. It's much less intuitive than "energy required to do XYZ"... --Steve (talk) 20:24, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

First, practical examples are great, because joules are part of a system of self-defining terms. But looking at the last one "The amount of electricity required to light a 1 W LED for 1 s," I'm wondering if distance isn't left out. Also, it's kind of inverted. Also, I think this refers to an LED that emits only 555 nm wavelengths.

Here's my version: "The amount of light that an object receives from a 1 W, 555 nm LED, that's 1 meter away." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.222.12.88 (talk) 23:30, 5 December 2017 (UTC)

"LED" is just an example. If the fact that it emits light confuses you, we could change it to a 1 watt motor or a 1 watt heater or something else. Kendall-K1 (talk) 00:59, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

one ampere squared

I undid a good faith edit that added "squared" to the electrical def of a Joule. It's true that the energy formula is E = t*R*I^2, but the current is still measured in amperes. A current of 2 amperes for one sec at one ohm produces 4 J, but the current is not square amps.--agr (talk) 21:25, 30 August 2012 (UTC)

Revocation of 31 March 2013

I reverted the additions of 31 March 2013 for a number of reasons:

• This article is about an SI unit of measure. It is unhelpful to try and explain it in terms of the customary system of measurement - the explanation should be in terms of quantities.
• The explanation contained a number of errors - the foot-pound is not dimensionless, it has dimensions of length×force - the same dimensions as joules and newton-metres.

Martinvl (talk) 17:38, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

Some gearing obviously slipped with that edit (overtorqued?). Thanks. HarryZilber (talk) 16:30, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

Revision/undo war over metre/meter

It is my understanding that wholesale changes of one term to another when there is no conflict within the document itself (in other words, changing everything to metre when there are only occurrences of meter in the text) is discouraged.

On Aug 14, Bazonka changed wholesale and without explanation all occurrences of meter to metre with the only comment WP:ENGVAR On Aug 24, I reverted that change. (WP:RETAIN) Subsequently, other changes were made. On Aug 26, An anonymous person changed all occurrences of meter to metre, even after the explanation for the revert. No comment. On Aug 26, I reverted that change once again. (WP:RETAIN)

Anyone else care to chime in? I have no dog in this fight, except to say that metre is less common throughout wikipedia in general, and the original wholesale change didn't seem warranted.

Riventree (talk) 01:39, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

No reason given to change spelling? WP:RETAIN. Enough said. — Reatlas (talk) 12:45, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

Please don't be silly, Reatlas. I explicitly mentioned that guideline. Twice. RT*A Riventree (talk) 20:26, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

I checked the history of the article. It was created in November 2001. The word "metre" first appeared in February 2002. Until 8 April 2013, the article used the UK spelling. On that day somebody changed it to US spelling. That change was unjustified. In light a decade with UK spelling followed by four months of US spelling, I feel that WP:RETAIN demands that we restore UK spelling. Martinvl (talk) 16:28, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

Last posting modified slightly. Martinvl (talk) 17:46, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

Excellent point, and argument given. I just saw the (second) wholesale change and reverted. Thank you for doing the legwork I failed to do. Riventree (talk) 20:26, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

P is F per second

It is mentioned in the article that 1 Joule is equal to the energy expended (or work done) in applying a force of one newton through a distance of one metre (1 newton metre or N·m)
however it is also equal to 1 Newton per second (I derived this from following formulas:

• W = F x s
• W = P x t
  

add in article KVDP (talk) 12:58, 29 September 2013 (UTC)

J = (N x m) = (Pa x m cubed)

I have no problem with what is presented. However I think it could be better. It took me quite a while to understand acceleration and a whole lot of the trouble was with the acceleration of one kilogram acceleration scenario. It finally came to me that there appears to be one scenario where a force action of one newton is accelerating the 1 kg for one "second". What it achieves is a "rate" of motion at the end of one second which is 1 m/s. What is not readily known is that the 1 kg body only "displaces", or moves 1/2 meter, in this second. If the 1 kg body is pushed with the force action of one pascal for 1 "distance" (displacement) of a meter... the end of the meter displacement velocity "rate" will be 1.414213562...m/s, or the the square root of 2 m/s. Here again this is not mentioned very often.

Back to the Newton Meter... I noted that if a newton or pascal is exerted for the full length of one meter... a whole lot of force seems to be wasted! The force applied goes from maximum of one newton or one pascal of pressure at the instant of onset, and then diminishes to zero throughout the meter displacement. It is a diminishing square scenario...; at 1/2 the meter distance, there is only 1/4 of a newton or pascal required for example, to finish the work. Thus the pressure of a full pascal is not needed throughout the distance. Actually it works out that the amount of the pascal required is 1/3 of a cubic meter. As pictured a figure, it would be a regular pyramid with a square 1 meter base, and 1 meter height. An analogy of this scenario: is as if a boat was sailing in friction-less water... and set sail in a continuous wind of 10 km/h... the sail will be hit with the full wind action of pressure initially, and once the boat is set in acceleration motion it also has a component of momentum velocity, such that if the wind quit at some moment prior to the full 10 km/h, the boat would just continue at that speed. Once..., when at the full 10 km/h velocity..., the wind will have no effect. The wind and the boat are both going at the same rate. (Remember, I said friction-less water.) Even if friction is present, there is momentum in action, and in this situation the extra wind would help accelerate and maintain a constant velocity. RAD 69.21.1.142 (talk) 23:26, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

" a derived unit of energy, work, or amount of heat"

Work or heat are forms of energy, the term "or" in this case is therefore nonsensical as the terms "work" and "heat" are redundant in the context of this sentence, I therefore propose changing the statement from a "derived unit of energy, work, or amount of heat" to "a derived unit of energy" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.228.156.103 (talk) 17:07, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

Agreed.  Done —Quondum 17:22, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

Watt second

I wonder whether we really need a separate article on Watt second. Kendall-K1 (talk) 17:07, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

So do I - I didn't know we had one. It's a synonym and should be a redirect to Joule. Some of the flash-photography material could be ported over. NebY (talk) 20:58, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Joule/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

may I suggest that given the impending impact of Global Peak Oil Production, it would be helpful to expand the Joule entry by including information that could help a non-scientist layperson to understand the relationship between the SI unit (Joule) and the global oil industry standard measure, a barrel of oil, and the associated energy measurement concept of "barrel of oil energy equivalent" used to compare the energy stored in oil versus natural gas. thanks for listening. JB--Wiki4jb (talk) 22:02, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Last edited at 22:02, 15 April 2008 (UTC). Substituted at 20:37, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Hirsohima

In the section "Terajoule", I changed "the atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima" to "the Hiroshima nuke" in the name of concision. People who know about history will know what is being referred to. See Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Okay?--Solomonfromfinland (talk) 02:40, 18 July 2016 (UTC)

Wrong information

spelling of joule is written as "Joule" at the top in heading please anyone correct it. The j should not be capital ty Navjot1200 (talk) 15:34, 18 February 2018 (UTC)

The reasoning is that "Joule" is serving as a title of the infobox or the article. The first word in atitle is capitalized. Jc3s5h (talk) 16:38, 18 February 2018 (UTC)

Proposed merger

 Done

I propose we merge Watt second to Joule, since they're the same thing. Kendall-K1 (talk) 17:57, 2 July 2018 (UTC)

Incorrect example with heating water

Per the linked website, 4.184 J of heat energy will raise the temperature of 1 g of water from 0 C to 1 C. Should the section be revised to say that 1 J raises the temperature of 1/4.184 = 0.239 g water by 1 deg. C? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.254.89.71 (talk • contribs) 11:24, 14 June 2021 (UTC)

Done. Jc3s5h (talk) 12:01, 14 June 2021 (UTC)