Orders Of Magnitude (Power)

1 yoctowatt

1 zeptowatt

• ~10 zW - approximate power of Galileo space probe's radio signal as received on earth by 70 meter DSN antenna.

1 attowatt

• 1 aW - approximate power scale at which operation of nanoelectromechanical systems is overwhelmed by thermal fluctuations.http://physicsweb.org/article/world/14/2/8

1 femtowatt

• 2.5 fW - minimum discernable signal at the antenna terminal of a good FM radio receiver
• 10 fW (-110 dBm) - approximate lower limit of power reception on digital spread-spectrum cell phones

1 picowatt

• 1 pW - average power consumption of a human cell
• 2.5 pW - Sound intensity per square centimeter for average human threshold of hearing at 1000Hz; 1 phon or 0 dB SPL
• 150 pW - Power entering a human eye from a 100 watt lamp 1 km away

1 nanowatt

1 microwatt

• 1 μW - approximate consumption of a quartz wristwatch

1 milliwatt

• 5 mW - laser in a CD-ROM drive http://sharp-world.com/products/device/ctlg/laser/
• 5-10 mW - laser in a DVD player
• 100 mW - laser in a CD-R drive

1 watt

• 5 W -- maximum power output of a CB or hand-held radio transmitter
• 20-40 W -- approximate power consumption of the human brain
• 30 W -- the power of the typical household tube light
• 60 W -- the power of the typical household light bulb
• 100 W -- approximate average power used by the human body
• 290 W -- approximately 1000 BTU/hour
• 745.7 W -- 1 horsepower
• 750 W -- the amount of sunshine falling on a square metre of the Earth's surface on a clear day

1 kilowatt

• 1.36 kW -- power received from the Sun at the Earth's orbit by one square metre
• up to 2 kW -- approximate short time power output of sprinting professional cyclists
• 1 kW to 2 kW -- heat output of a domestic electric kettle.
• 2.2 kW -- per capita average power use of the world in 2001
• 11.4 kW -- per capita average power use in the U.S. in 2001
• 40 kW to 200 kW -- approximate range of power output of typical automobiles
• 50 kW to 100 kW -- ERP of clear channel AM stations
• 250 kW -- highest allowed ERP for an FM band radio station in the United States.

1 megawatt

• 3 MW -- Mechanical power output of a diesel locomotive
• 10 MW -- Highest ERP allowed for a UHF television station.
• 10.3 MW -- Electrical power output of Togo
• 190 MW -- peak power output of a Nimitz class aircraft carrier
• 900 MW -- electric power output of a CANDU nuclear reactor
• 959 MW -- average electrical power consumption of Zimbabwe in 1998

1 gigawatt

• 1.3 GW - electric power output of Manitoba Hydro Limestone hydroelectric generating station
• 2.074 GW - peak power generation of Hoover Dam
• 3 GW - approximate peak power generation of the world's largest nuclear reactor
• 12.6 GW -- electrical power generation of the Itaipu Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric power plant
• 12.7 GW -- average electrical power consumption of Norway in 1998
• 18.2 GW -- electrical power generation of the Three Gorges Dam in China when complete
• 424.3 GW -- average electrical power consumption of the U.S. in 2001

1 terawatt

• 1.7 TW -- average electrical power consumption of the world in 2001
• 3.327 TW -- average total power consumption of the U.S. in 2001
• 13.5 TW -- average total power consumption of the world in 2001

1 petawatt

• 1.25 × 10¹⁵ watts -- world's most powerful laser (claimed on 23 May 1996 by Lawrence Livermore Laboratory).
• 4 × 10¹⁵ watts -- estimated total heat flux transported by Earth's atmosphere and oceans away from the equator towards the poles.
• 1.75 × 10¹⁷ W -- total power received by the Earth from the Sun

1 exawatt

1 zettawatt

• 1.35 × 10²³W - Approximate luminosity of Wolf 359

1 yottawatt

• 3.86×10²⁶W - Luminosity of the Sun

Higher and Lower orders of magnitude

• 3.31 × 10³¹W - Approximate luminosity of Hadar
• 1.23 × 10³²W - Approximate luminosity of Deneb
• 5 × 10³⁶W - Approximate luminosity of the Milky way galaxy.
• 1 × 10⁴⁵W - Approximate luminosity of a Gamma ray burster

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