Comment on Power is not energy: why the difference matters [Technology Connections]
MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 days ago
is it really so that your Joe Average can’t tell the difference between 1kWh of heat produced by gas compared to electricity?
Most people don’t even know what a watt or watt/hour is. And have no idea how energy from gas relates to energy from electricity.
boonhet@lemm.ee 5 days ago
Oh yeah I’ve seen that used before, makes me cringe every time.
Anyway, do must people not go to high school? Or is stuff like that not part of the physics curriculum in some places?
kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 days ago
A W/h either is a big problem or will be soon.
boonhet@lemm.ee 4 days ago
I mean that depends on your W/h^2^ and higher orders too. Maybe you’re actually approaching zero watts :P
MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 days ago
Even if it was covered in high school, I think because most people never use it again in daily life it’s easy to forget.
pebbles@sh.itjust.works 5 days ago
In my highschool physics was optional. You had multiple options for science credits and could get through without taking it.
boonhet@lemm.ee 5 days ago
Oh, in my country you have to take physics, chemistry and biology. That actually goes for middle school too. Plus geography which actually also contains geology. And math could be considered science I guess.
We have elective courses too, but all the basics are mandatory. That includes at least two foreign languages, history, our own language, literature (becomes separate subject from language in high school), music, art (including history of both), basic computer usage, shop class for boys and home ec for girls (with trades in between so us boys still got to cook and stuff, plus in elementary school everyone gets to knit and crochet IIRC). Oh and physical education unless you’re disabled, in which case you either get to watch or just do something else I think.
I’m actually sure I’ve missed something. These are all mandatory. You can do shit like folkdance or choir for electives, or many other things depending on school. I had philosophy as one of my electives lol
I think people in some countries (the US) don’t even know what they’re missing out on tbh.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
It was kind of complicated at my high school; Depending on if you were on a college prep or prison prep track they would or wouldn’t bother trying to teach the science classes that had math in them to you. The “going to community college or trade school” program I was on gave you an option of chemistry or physics but I ended up taking both.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 5 days ago
I never took chemistry, and I didn’t take a real physics course until college, though we had survey courses like “physical science” throughout school.
I don’t recall if we talked about watt hours specifically, but joules were certainly mentioned, though I doubt most people remember it. Most of the emphasis was on things like friction equations (given an ideal pulley and an incline with slope…), not real world things like understanding your electricity bill.
That said, I think most people intuitively understand the difference between instantaneous consumption and total consumption over a time period. They know playing games will drain their phone or laptop battery way faster than browsing the web, for example. They just tend to not stop and think about it and they simplify things in the wrong way (power rating on device), though a total energy estimate does work (e.g. when comparing refrigerators).