[OReilly]

Hoover Dam Given:

2 billion watts in 24 hours =
2 G W in 24 hours =
0.083 G W in 1 hour =
0.00138 G W in 1 minute =
2.315 e^-5 G W in 1 second =
2.315 e^-8 G W in 1 millisecond =
2.315 e^-9 G W in 1 nanosecond =

So as you can readily see, it really is not all that much, if the interval is short enough!!!! /sarcasm off

[OReilly]

The rest of the calculations are left as an exercise for the student.....errr Saddam and his generals!

[sam_paine]

1.21 GW????? Does it require a Mr. Fusion Generator?

This reminds me of the science camp I want to once where the mentally distressed kid (there's always one in any camp)... well his project was going to be a pulsed dye laser (xenon flash bulbs pumping a mirrored tube with dye...)

So the first thing he set about doing in the two week project was building concrete targets for his "laazzzer beeeem." (Long b4 Austin Powers was even born...)

Needless to say, he never got his project done because he fiddlefarted around with the targets, and when he stood up in front of the kids and profs to explain his power output, he got heckled from 13 yr olds because he didn't know the difference between peak and continuous power.

Nevertheless, he was still head-and-shoulders above what passes for a student in the halls of public ed today.

Just a silly story. What were we talking about? More coffee. GigaWatt="GW". Ironic?