Questions you asked at skool but never got an answer for

[Barman]

Go and have a look here I am sure the answer is there somewhere.


http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_sun.html#heatlong

If you took the amount of sunlight that hits the Earth in one second and converted it into matter, how much would it weigh? How much energy is this in practical terms?

This is an excellent question, which puts the energy balance on Earth into perspective. Let me answer this question in two steps, and then let me compare the amount of energy from the Sun to the amount humankind is using right now.
The energy per time put out by the Sun is its luminosity, 3.8 x 1026 Joules per second (or Watts). Using Einstein's renowned formula that describes how much mass is transformed into energy, when energy is being produced, E = M * c2 (or: Energy = Mass * (Speed of Light)2), as 1 Joule = 1 kg m2/s2 and c = 300,000,000 m/s, the mass the Sun burns into energy every second is:

Mass/Time = 3.8 x 1026/(3 x 108)2 kg/s = 4.4 x 109 kg/s

or roughly 4 million tons per second.
At its distance of 1 Astronomical Unit (150 million km), the Earth is hit by the Sun's energy flux F = 1400 Joules/s/m2. We call this quantity the "solar constant", as this value averaged over each year is constant within better than 1% over time. With an Earth radius of approx 6400 km, the area, which is (pi * Earth's radius)2, with which the Earth intercepts sunlight is (pi * Earth's radius)2 = 1.3 x 1014 m2 making the amount of energy captured by the Earth each second:

F * (pi * Earth's radius)2 = 1.8 x 1017 Joules/s
According to the same procedure as above this makes the mass to produce this amount of energy per second:

Mass captured as sunlight per second = 1.8 x 1017 / (3 x 108)2 kg/s = 2 kg/s

This is about 4.5 lbs/s or close to 5 lbs/s.
To put these numbers into a perspective with highly practical relevance, on average, humankind is only using about 1/10,000 of that amount for its total energy consumption. In other words, sunlight seems to be a viable option for our energy needs, at least from the perspective of the total amount needed. Or from the point of view of mass, we are transforming about 20 kg of mass per day into energy for our energy consumption.
If we were to use much more energy, say a sizeable fraction of the amount that the Earth gets from the Sun, the Earth would have to heat up considerably in order to get rid of the waste heat. Every power plant needs a cooler to get rid of its heat; the Earth as a whole can only do this by getting hotter.
Dr. Eberhard Moebius
(January 2005)

I preferred his strip....

[Nick]

Go and have a look here I am sure the answer is there somewhere.


http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_sun.html#heatlong

If you took the amount of sunlight that hits the Earth in one second and converted it into matter, how much would it weigh? How much energy is this in practical terms?

This is an excellent question, which puts the energy balance on Earth into perspective. Let me answer this question in two steps, and then let me compare the amount of energy from the Sun to the amount humankind is using right now.
The energy per time put out by the Sun is its luminosity, 3.8 x 1026 Joules per second (or Watts). Using Einstein's renowned formula that describes how much mass is transformed into energy, when energy is being produced, E = M * c2 (or: Energy = Mass * (Speed of Light)2), as 1 Joule = 1 kg m2/s2 and c = 300,000,000 m/s, the mass the Sun burns into energy every second is:

Mass/Time = 3.8 x 1026/(3 x 108)2 kg/s = 4.4 x 109 kg/s

or roughly 4 million tons per second.
At its distance of 1 Astronomical Unit (150 million km), the Earth is hit by the Sun's energy flux F = 1400 Joules/s/m2. We call this quantity the "solar constant", as this value averaged over each year is constant within better than 1% over time. With an Earth radius of approx 6400 km, the area, which is (pi * Earth's radius)2, with which the Earth intercepts sunlight is (pi * Earth's radius)2 = 1.3 x 1014 m2 making the amount of energy captured by the Earth each second:

F * (pi * Earth's radius)2 = 1.8 x 1017 Joules/s
According to the same procedure as above this makes the mass to produce this amount of energy per second:

Mass captured as sunlight per second = 1.8 x 1017 / (3 x 108)2 kg/s = 2 kg/s

This is about 4.5 lbs/s or close to 5 lbs/s.
To put these numbers into a perspective with highly practical relevance, on average, humankind is only using about 1/10,000 of that amount for its total energy consumption. In other words, sunlight seems to be a viable option for our energy needs, at least from the perspective of the total amount needed. Or from the point of view of mass, we are transforming about 20 kg of mass per day into energy for our energy consumption.
If we were to use much more energy, say a sizeable fraction of the amount that the Earth gets from the Sun, the Earth would have to heat up considerably in order to get rid of the waste heat. Every power plant needs a cooler to get rid of its heat; the Earth as a whole can only do this by getting hotter.
Dr. Eberhard Moebius
(January 2005)

NO wonder no one told me

[apc2010]

Go and have a look here I am sure the answer is there somewhere.


http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_sun.html#heatlong

If you took the amount of sunlight that hits the Earth in one second and converted it into matter, how much would it weigh? How much energy is this in practical terms?

This is an excellent question, which puts the energy balance on Earth into perspective. Let me answer this question in two steps, and then let me compare the amount of energy from the Sun to the amount humankind is using right now.
The energy per time put out by the Sun is its luminosity, 3.8 x 1026 Joules per second (or Watts). Using Einstein's renowned formula that describes how much mass is transformed into energy, when energy is being produced, E = M * c2 (or: Energy = Mass * (Speed of Light)2), as 1 Joule = 1 kg m2/s2 and c = 300,000,000 m/s, the mass the Sun burns into energy every second is:

Mass/Time = 3.8 x 1026/(3 x 108)2 kg/s = 4.4 x 109 kg/s

or roughly 4 million tons per second.
At its distance of 1 Astronomical Unit (150 million km), the Earth is hit by the Sun's energy flux F = 1400 Joules/s/m2. We call this quantity the "solar constant", as this value averaged over each year is constant within better than 1% over time. With an Earth radius of approx 6400 km, the area, which is (pi * Earth's radius)2, with which the Earth intercepts sunlight is (pi * Earth's radius)2 = 1.3 x 1014 m2 making the amount of energy captured by the Earth each second:

F * (pi * Earth's radius)2 = 1.8 x 1017 Joules/s
According to the same procedure as above this makes the mass to produce this amount of energy per second:

Mass captured as sunlight per second = 1.8 x 1017 / (3 x 108)2 kg/s = 2 kg/s

This is about 4.5 lbs/s or close to 5 lbs/s.
To put these numbers into a perspective with highly practical relevance, on average, humankind is only using about 1/10,000 of that amount for its total energy consumption. In other words, sunlight seems to be a viable option for our energy needs, at least from the perspective of the total amount needed. Or from the point of view of mass, we are transforming about 20 kg of mass per day into energy for our energy consumption.
If we were to use much more energy, say a sizeable fraction of the amount that the Earth gets from the Sun, the Earth would have to heat up considerably in order to get rid of the waste heat. Every power plant needs a cooler to get rid of its heat; the Earth as a whole can only do this by getting hotter.
Dr. Eberhard Moebius
(January 2005)

NO wonder no one told me

Well you asked...........

[The Moan Ranger]

Remember "glo putty"?

I showed some to our physics teacher (Geoff Scoble) - how you could squash it, stick it to the wall, the glow-in-the-dark etc. and then I rolled it into a ball and asked him if it would bounce.  He said no, it wouldn't. He was utterly astonished when I threw it at he wall and it rebounded like a tennis ball.

He wandered off muttering something about "defies all the laws of physics" into his moustache...

[Nick]

Any relations to Peter Scoble?

[The Moan Ranger]

Any relations to Peter Scoble?

Dunno. Geoff was ex-RAF, had a fine moustache and kept bees. In fact, if you got him onto the subject of bees, you could be guaranteed that he would talk about them for the entirity of the lesson.  Oh, and he drove a Ginetta.

[Barman]

Any relations to Peter Scoble?

Dunno. Geoff was ex-RAF, had a fine moustache and kept bees. In fact, if you got him onto the subject of bees, you could be guaranteed that he would talk about them for the entirity of the lesson.  Oh, and he drove a Ginetta.

Was he short as well...?

[The Moan Ranger]

About 5 foot 9, so no, not short.

[Barman]

About 5 foot 9, so no, not short.

Not tall tho.... given the free milk at skool and everything.... 

[The Moan Ranger]

He flew Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain. Lanky feckers weren't very good pilots (cramped in the cockpit) and thus the only reason we are speaking English is down to "good sized" men like me. Beanpoles like you are only useful for clearing guttering. So feck off!

[Barman]

He flew Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain. Lanky feckers weren't very good pilots (cramped in the cockpit) and thus the only reason we are speaking English is down to "good sized" men like me. Beanpoles like you are only useful for clearing guttering. So feck off!

Indeed... tall blokes would have had their heads shot off in the trenches too - survival of the fittest like the shorties.... 

[The Moan Ranger]

"Parents night" was always fun with him - he and my father would talk about how I was getting on for about 1 minute ("could try harder - does the bare minimum to get by") and then spend 19 minutes talking about their cars - my dad had a Dolly Sprint, Mr Scoble the Ginetta. In fact, one Saturday morning when I was playing rugby for the school, my dad and Mr Scoble were watching then they pissed off and swapped cars. All you could hear was screeching tyres and wailing engines as they left the car park for a quick burn up.

[Barman]

"Parents night" was always fun with him - he and my father would talk about how I was getting on for about 1 minute ("could try harder - does the bare minimum to get by") and then spend 19 minutes talking about their cars - my dad had a Dolly Sprint, Mr Scoble the Ginetta. In fact, one Saturday morning when I was playing rugby for the school, my dad and Mr Scoble were watching then they pissed off and swapped cars. All you could hear was screeching tyres and wailing engines as they left the car park for a quick burn up.

Did they discuss the fact that you'd never be able to reach the peddles...? 

[Snoopy]

Go and have a look here I am sure the answer is there somewhere.


http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_sun.html#heatlong

If you took the amount of sunlight that hits the Earth in one second and converted it into matter, how much would it weigh? How much energy is this in practical terms?

This is an excellent question, which puts the energy balance on Earth into perspective. Let me answer this question in two steps, and then let me compare the amount of energy from the Sun to the amount humankind is using right now.
The energy per time put out by the Sun is its luminosity, 3.8 x 1026 Joules per second (or Watts). Using Einstein's renowned formula that describes how much mass is transformed into energy, when energy is being produced, E = M * c2 (or: Energy = Mass * (Speed of Light)2), as 1 Joule = 1 kg m2/s2 and c = 300,000,000 m/s, the mass the Sun burns into energy every second is:

Mass/Time = 3.8 x 1026/(3 x 108)2 kg/s = 4.4 x 109 kg/s

or roughly 4 million tons per second.
At its distance of 1 Astronomical Unit (150 million km), the Earth is hit by the Sun's energy flux F = 1400 Joules/s/m2. We call this quantity the "solar constant", as this value averaged over each year is constant within better than 1% over time. With an Earth radius of approx 6400 km, the area, which is (pi * Earth's radius)2, with which the Earth intercepts sunlight is (pi * Earth's radius)2 = 1.3 x 1014 m2 making the amount of energy captured by the Earth each second:

F * (pi * Earth's radius)2 = 1.8 x 1017 Joules/s
According to the same procedure as above this makes the mass to produce this amount of energy per second:

Mass captured as sunlight per second = 1.8 x 1017 / (3 x 108)2 kg/s = 2 kg/s

This is about 4.5 lbs/s or close to 5 lbs/s.
To put these numbers into a perspective with highly practical relevance, on average, humankind is only using about 1/10,000 of that amount for its total energy consumption. In other words, sunlight seems to be a viable option for our energy needs, at least from the perspective of the total amount needed. Or from the point of view of mass, we are transforming about 20 kg of mass per day into energy for our energy consumption.
If we were to use much more energy, say a sizeable fraction of the amount that the Earth gets from the Sun, the Earth would have to heat up considerably in order to get rid of the waste heat. Every power plant needs a cooler to get rid of its heat; the Earth as a whole can only do this by getting hotter.
Dr. Eberhard Moebius
(January 2005)

NO wonder no one told me

Indeed Young Nick ~ the reason nobody told you is staring you in the face .... There was no Google 

[The Moan Ranger]

Possibly, BM :-)

But they did discuss the fact that when we did Boxing in PE, I was always a nasty little bastard and would regularly knock out those taller than me. Your sort of height, BM...you know, lanky streaks of piss and wind...