We live in a world where people demanded (and succeeded) in having the Meteorological Service of Canada to report windchill as “feels like C” instead of, ya know, a measure of actual heat loss in Watts / M^2 / s
Comment on Power is not energy: why the difference matters [Technology Connections]
jol@discuss.tchncs.de 1 week ago
If you think the average person understands watts, you live in a bubble, straight and simple. You have a very skewed notion of the average person.
Krudler@lemmy.world 1 week ago
KingOfSuede@lemmy.world 1 week ago
You say that like it’s a bad thing? I prefer not to dust off my slide rule everytime I want to know how cold it is out.
Krudler@lemmy.world 1 week ago
The first time they did the feels like scale… My father’s colleagues were involved. They took a sample of people and put them in wind tunnels and sprayed them with water and said hey how’s it going over there.
I wish more than anything I was joking right now.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
Yeah, just give me actual temp and wind speed, and I’ll get a feel for what’s cold by going outside.
xthexder@l.sw0.com 1 week ago
Idk, I kind of like knowing how many layers of clothes I need to put on before I leave the house. Especially when the wind chill can make it feel like another -10°C pretty easily.
rice@lemmy.org 1 week ago
Yep that video is leagues beyond most peoples capabilities to understand. Thinking they already knew and understood it is crazy.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
Nah, the video is pretty straightforward, but it’s presented in a way that most people would lose interest unless they’re actually into the subject matter. I see three problems with the video:
Power vs energy is fairly simple with a good explanation. Power is simply the speed at which energy gets used up. For example:
That’s extremely intuitive. All a regular person needs to know is that simple concept, plus a way to measure it (the Kill-a-watt example). Boom, 5-10 min video.
But the talking head made it way more complicated by starting with gas. That’s just belabouring the point that you can increase or decrease power, which is already intuitive with batteries or things we can see (wood) or feel (tiredness).
They could then segue into gas, once the power vs energy issue is established. A can of butane is like a battery, and the valve controls how quickly it’s used. We can compare gas and electricity directly because electricity can be turned directly into heat, just like gas can.
And then you segue into heat pumps. Basically explain how your AC/fridge works (i.e. moves heat instead of creating “cold”). Make a demo where you move heat vs create heat and show how much energy is used. As in, heat a room from 72F or whatever to 90F, one using a heat pump and the other using a space heater. Show how temps compare on both sides of the heat pump vs space heater (other rooms shouldn’t change w/ space heater). Then use that to show a real-world example of a house that swapped from furnace to heat pump to really drive the point home that moving heat is more efficient than creating it.
rice@lemmy.org 1 week ago
This is way beyond majority of peoples capabilities. Everything in your post and his video is, both are long too. Majority of people just do not care, otherwise we’d all be engineers.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
The part about electricity is pretty short, just a few bullet points and a couple paragraphs. If it was video form, I could cover it in 2-3 min complete with visuals.
I don’t know why this video is so long.
Krudler@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Explaining to people learning to cook that oil is liquid pan that carries heat is just too mind blowing. The simple shit is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy beyond the average smartwatch wearing doof