Calculate Your Power
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- Class Time Allotment: 25 Minutes
- Materials:
- stopwatch
- meter stick
- steps
- Procedures:
- A. Measure the height of a single step.____________
Multiply this value by the number of stairs to determine the height of
a flight of steps.
- Height________________(meters)
- B. Have someone measure the time it takes
for you to walk up the steps.
- Time________________(seconds)
- C. Weight in Newtons = 9.8 Newtons x
weight in pounds / 2.2 pounds
- Newtons___________________
- D. Using your weight and the height of
the steps, calculate the amount of work done in walking up the steps.
- Work = force in Newtons x distance (total
distance vertical height of steps - meters)
- Work_____________________________ (Joules)
- E. Using your calculated value for work
and the time it took to walk up the stairs, calculate the power you produced.
- Power = work / time (watts)
- Power_______________________(watts)
- Kilowatts_____________________
- Horsepower___________________
- w = f x d
- Joules (newton-meters) = newtons x meters
- watt - unit of POWER (rate at which work is
done)
- (watts are measured in Joules / second)
- power = work done / time
- 1 Joule/sec = 1 watt
- 1 kilowatt = 1000 watts
- 1 horsepower = 746 watts
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