erg
erg
Energyexact by definition
The erg is the CGS unit of energy, one dyne centimetre, exactly 10⁻⁷ joules. It is a very small amount of energy, roughly what a mosquito spends on one wingbeat, and it survives almost entirely in astrophysics, where luminosities and burst energies are quoted in ergs and erg per second.
Watch out: A supernova releases about 10⁵¹ erg, a number so entrenched in the literature that it has its own nickname, the foe. That is 10⁴⁴ joules, and the erg figure is the one you will meet in the papers.
| 1 erg | 1.0000000e-07 J |
Where the unit came from
From the Greek ergon, work, named in 1873 by the British Association committee that also gave us the dyne.
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