Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The International System unit of electrical, mechanical, and thermal energy.
  • noun A unit of electrical energy equal to the work done when a current of one ampere is passed through a resistance of one ohm for one second.
  • noun A unit of energy equal to the work done when a force of one newton acts through a distance of one meter.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A practical unit of work or energy equal to 107 ergs, 0.10197 + kilogram-meters, 0.2388+ calories, or 0.7376+ foot-pounds. It was formally adopted as a unit by the international Congress in Chicago (1893) and was legalized in the United States in 1894.
  • noun An electrical unit proposed by Siemens.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Physics.) A unit of work which is equal to 107 ergs (the unit of work in the C. G. S. system of units), and is equivalent to one watt-second, the energy expended in one second by an electric current of one ampere in a resistance of one ohm; also called the absolute joule. It is abbreviated J or j. The international joule is slightly larger, being 1.000167 times the absolute joule. The absolute joule is approximately equal to 0.737562 foot pounds, 0.239006 gram-calories (small calories), and 3.72506 x 10-7 horsepower-hours, and 0.000948451 B.t.u.
  • noun See under Equivalent, n.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun In the International System of Units, the derived unit of energy, work and heat; the work required to exert a force of one newton for a distance of one metre. Also equal to the energy of one watt of power for a duration of one second. Symbol: J

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a unit of electrical energy equal to the work done when a current of one ampere passes through a resistance of one ohm for one second
  • noun English physicist who established the mechanical theory of heat and discovered the first law of thermodynamics (1818-1889)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[After James Prescott Joule.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Named after the English physicist James Prescott Joule.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word joule.

Examples

  • An average of 420 joules of ultraviolet laser energy, known as 3-omega, was achieved for each beamline, for a total energy of more than 80 kilojoules (a joule is the energy needed to lift a small apple one meter against the Earth's gravity).

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2009

  • A joule is a watt-second, so this capacitor could deliver one watt for 0.4165 seconds, or 0.4165 watts for one second, or any other combination in which watts times seconds equals 0.4165.

    How To Spot A Psychopath 2009

  • An average of 420 joules of ultraviolet laser energy, known as 3-omega, was achieved for each beamline, for a total energy of more than 80 kilojoules (a joule is the energy needed to lift a small apple one meter against the Earth's gravity).

    unknown title 2009

  • An average of 420 joules of ultraviolet laser energy, known as 3-omega, was achieved for each beamline, for a total energy of more than 80 kilojoules (a joule is the energy needed to lift a small apple one meter against the Earth's gravity).

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2009

  • Much is riding on the outcome: the joule, watt, volt, farad, weber and ohm are only some of the units derived in part from the kilo.

    The Fate of the Kilo Weighs Heavily on the Minds of Metrologists Jeanne Whalen 2011

  • Ok then lets say it has to deliver above 2000 joule of energy on target at 100 yards and has to have a premium bullet .. 30 carbine out 30-30 in 223 out 22-250 in barely etc.. a 22-250 will do the job with barnes-x and a good shot ..

    Is Your Bullet Big Enough? 2009

  • Ok then lets say it has to deliver above 2000 joule of energy on target at 100 yards and has to have a premium bullet .. 30 carbine out 30-30 in 223 out 22-250 in barely etc.. a 22-250 will do the job with barnes-x and a good shot ..

    Is Your Bullet Big Enough? 2009

  • Dressed in solar-system ties and Alfred Nobel lapel pins, delegates at the meeting at the Royal Society dissected a clutch of experiments that so far suggest Planck's constant should equal 6.62606896 x 10 to the power of -34 joule seconds.

    The Fate of the Kilo Weighs Heavily on the Minds of Metrologists Jeanne Whalen 2011

  • For every one joule of food consumed in the United States, around 10 joules of fossil fuel energy have been used to produce it.

    duh pookie 2008

  • For every one joule of food consumed in the United States, around 10 joules of fossil fuel energy have been used to produce it.

    duh pookie 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.