9 upvotes, 9 direct replies (showing 9)
View submission: xkcd: Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma
Exactly how much is 20 kW?
Comment by happy_otter at 06/08/2014 at 09:13 UTC
15 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Something between 2 and 10 portable generators (depending of the size of said generator). Or somewhat less than one tenth of a Tesla car.
Comment by AvatarIII at 06/08/2014 at 08:46 UTC
16 upvotes, 0 direct replies
about 200x 100W incandescent lightbulbs, or about 1500x energy saving bulbs
Comment by OreoPriest at 06/08/2014 at 09:25 UTC
13 upvotes, 2 direct replies
One way to think of it is in horsepower. One hp is 750W, so 20kW is the power of about 25 horses. That many horses pulling on a box should do a whole lot more than make it twitch.
Comment by BeornPlush at 06/08/2014 at 16:00 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
20 microwaves on high.
Comment by ultimatt42 at 06/08/2014 at 20:31 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
An average American household uses around 1.24 kW (10,837 kWh annually, source[1]). So you could power roughly 16 homes on 20 kW.
1: http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=97&t=3
Comment by Conotor at 06/08/2014 at 22:44 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Humans are approximately made of water, with a heat capacity of 4.2j/ml degC, density of 1g/ml
So a 70kg (155 pound) human would heat up by about 1 degree every 15 seconds, or 1 degree F every 8 seconds. This would kill you in something between immediately and a matter of minutes, depending on how it is applied.
Comment by inio at 06/08/2014 at 15:30 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
A hell of a lot more than the NASA-funded experiment pumped into it. They ran roughly 30W into the Cannae design and 20W into the tapered cavity design.
Comment by XXCoreIII at 07/08/2014 at 10:25 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
A house outlet is capable of ~1.8 or so kW.
Comment by zamboni_ at 06/08/2014 at 04:54 UTC
-4 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but your average outlet pumps out around 120 watts. So 20 kW is 20.000 watts, way more than enough to kill you.