Wattvision: Understanding your electricity meter with Wolfram Alpha

wattvision.posterous.com

7 pointsagrinshtein5 comments

This does not actually showcase the power of Wolfram Alpha. For instance, Google will do unit conversions aw well.

Now, if you wanted to integrate that...

Really? "7.2 watt-hours in 15 seconds in watts" doesn't "just work" in google. Can you post a one-liner that does the same calculation in google or other site?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=7.2+wa...

Works fine, used it all the time in my Physics class.

That calculation is not the same one I'm asking for. It's not watts per hour as you've written -- it's actually watt-hours (watt * hour). The answer is also incorrect -- it's not 0.03 watts -- it's 1730 watts. So my request still stands -- show me a one-liner for my original calculation. It's not as simple as you think. ;)

Ok I did some more experimentation and discovered this: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ei=ePsUSs_lJ6HqtQP7l8...

Of course, many other tools can do this almost-trivial unit conversion for you. Unless you have forgotten how many seconds are in a minute or how many foos are in a kilofoo, you should be able to do this in your head...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com