How many joules are in a Mega Watt?

[besaw212]

Homework Statement

I know that you can't convert between the two because one is the rate at which energy is produced and another is an amount of energy. I need to find out how much energy was used for 417 billion kilowatt hours. This was the amount for a year. Is there a way to get it in joules per second?

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution

 

[Zryn]

1 Watt is 1 Joule per second (1 J/s), thus 1 Mega Watt is 1 Mega Joule per second (1 MJ/s).

If you have a Watt hour (Wh) on the other hand, you have 1J/s * 1h i.e. 1J/s * 1h * 60s/min * 60min/h = 1 * 60 * 60 J/s * s/m * m/h * h = 60 * 60 J = 3600J. Notice how all the time units cancel out and you are only left with energy (Joules).

This process can also be extrapolated to KWh or MWh to find out how many Joules each one contains.

 

[gneill]

What's the definition of a Watt? How about a kW? kWh?