What can I compare power to?

[sdfgeoff]

Well, for an assignment, i'm studying the power consumption of a laptop. Over the course of it's life (including manufacturing) it consumes ~6430Mj.

What can I compare this to?

[Krom]

Amount of fossil fuel you would have to burn to get that much power? Distance you could drive a car (or other forms of work) with that much energy?

[snoopy]

2.8 million big macs?

[Isaac]

The amount of energy that would have to be done in order to do the same task without a computer... I should be a politician.

[Krom]

Also:
1.786 megawatt-hours or electricity, or enough to run two average American houses for a little less than one month.
Or the explosive yield of about 1.5 tons of TNT.
Or the amount of energy in about 1.09 barrels of oil.
Or a bit over 6 million BTUs.

[Duper]

2.8 million big macs?

Nice. "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" ???


Here ya go TNT equivalent with Joules included. 64K is a lot more than most nukes.