joule
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Financial, Acronyms, Wikipedia.
joule
joule
(jool) Symbol: J. The SI unit of energy, equal to the work done when the point of application of a force of one newton is moved one meter in the direction of the force.Joule
a unit of energy and work in the International System of Units and the MKSA (meter-kilogram-second-ampere) system. It is equal to the work done by a force of 1 newton in moving a body 1 m in the direction of the force. It is named in honor of the English physicist J. Joule. In Russian the symbol is dzh; the international symbol is J.
At the Second World Conference of Electrical Engineers (1889) the joule was introduced into the absolute practical electrical units as the unit of work and energy for electric current. The joule was defined as the work done at a power of 1 watt in 1 second. The International Conference on Electrical Units and Standards (London, 1908) established “international” electrical units, among them the so-called international joule. After the return to absolute electrical units (beginning Jan. 1, 1948), the ratio of 1 international joule to 1.00020 absolute joules was adopted.
The joule is also used as a unit of quantity of heat. The ratio of the joule to other units is as follows: 1 joule = 107 ergs = 0.2388 calories.
G. D. BURDUN