Re: [Phys-L] definition of "power"

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

I was thinking about whether it would hurt the narrative.  Certainly viewers
would not tend to notice the each second, and I suspect divided by one
second would not be noticed and would possibly put them off because it is
math.  Since this program is for young children your "how fast" definition
would probably be the best.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> I think it would hurt.  It would still have viewers come away 
> with the idea that power is an amount of energy, with units 
> of energy.  I would accept "power is the energy put into the 
> thing each second, divided by one second."  I would much 
> prefer, "the power in this case, is how fast energy is being 
> put into the thing," or, better yet, "how fast energy is 
> flowing into the thing."