I know watts are a measure of work being done. How much wattage is required to move a 3000 lb automobile from a stop to 60 miles per hour. I’d like to know how to calculate this myself, so please show the formula you’d use to come up with the answer. I’m curious to know how significant a 250W solar collector on the roof of my hybrid car would be.
use
Kinetic Energy
KE = ½mV²
3000 lb = 1361 kg
60 mph = 26.8 m/s
KE = ½mV²
plug in the numbers to get the Kinetic energy.
KE = 489534 Joules
to get the power (wattage), you need a time. If it accelerates to 60 in 10 seconds
power = KE/10 in watts. = 489534/10 = 48953 watts.
If average car uses 100 HP, that is 74600 watts.
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