Erg Per Second (erg/s)
Exactly 10⁻⁷ watts, the CGS unit of power. Used for the luminosity of stars.
1 erg per second = 1×10⁻⁷ watts (exactly).
About the erg per second
Erg per second is simply the erg divided by the second, a rate of energy use that forms the power unit of the centimeter-gram-second system. In base units it is 1 g cm2/s3, and it equals 10 to the power minus 7 watt, a tenth of a microwatt.
The system goes back to the committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1873, which recommended the centimeter, gram and second as fundamental units. Power in this system never received a special name, which is why the awkward compound form remained in use.
One watt is therefore 10 million erg/s. The small size means everyday machines look huge in these terms, and the unit is mostly met where very large outputs are discussed, such as luminosities in astrophysics, where Gaussian CGS units are still common.
Sources: Wikipedia: Centimetre-gram-second system of units; Wikipedia: Erg (unit); NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8 conversion factors
Erg Per Second conversion chart
1 erg per second expressed in every other power unit:
| Unit | 1 erg per second |
|---|---|
| Watts | 1×10⁻⁷ |
| Kilowatts | 1×10⁻¹⁰ |
| Horsepower | 1.34102209×10⁻¹⁰ |
| Megawatts | 1×10⁻¹³ |
| Gigawatts | 1×10⁻¹⁶ |
| Metric Horsepower | 1.359621617×10⁻¹⁰ |
| BTU Per Hour | 3.412141633×10⁻⁷ |
| Milliwatts | 0.0001 |
| Electrical Horsepower | 1.340482574×10⁻¹⁰ |
| Foot-pounds Per Second | 7.375621493×10⁻⁸ |
| Tons Of Refrigeration | 2.843451361×10⁻¹¹ |
| Kilocalories Per Hour | 8.604206501×10⁻⁸ |
| Calories Per Second | 2.390057361×10⁻⁸ |
| Poncelets | 1.019716213×10⁻¹⁰ |
More CGS & old metric units
- erg (energy)
- kilogram-force meter (energy)
- technical atmosphere (pressure)
- barye (pressure)
- kilogram-force (force)
- gram-force (force)
- dyne (force)
- tonne-force (force)
Browse all power units.