Al, I was right (he is not going to get it). RMS value of ANY sinusoidal waveform, having peak at 200 (of any unit) is 141 (of the same unit). 100W would be an average power value corresponding to VrmsxIrms and equal to half of peak power for sinewave (and equivalent to amount of DC power producing the same amount of heat). Guys, please, this is EE101.
RMS Power?
I often see power specifications like "100W RMS". There is no such thing as RMS power. Of course, you can calculate RMS value from any curve, including power curve, but it won't represent anything. "Real" power representing heat dissipated in resistive load is "Average Power" Pavg=Vrms*Irms. In case of sinewaves Pavg=0.707Vpeak * 0.707Ipeak = 0.5Ppeak, or Ppeak = 2Pavg.
Term "RMS Power" or "watts RMS" is a mistake, very common in audio.
Term "RMS Power" or "watts RMS" is a mistake, very common in audio.
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@kijanki Al, I was right (he is not going to get it). RMS value of ANY sinusoidal waveform, having peak at 200 (of any unit) is 141 (of the same unit). 100W would be an average power value corresponding to VrmsxIrms and equal to half of peak power for sinewave (and equivalent to amount of DC power producing the same amount of heat). Guys, please, this is EE101. Lets be a little careful here for those trying to understand this conversation. "RMS value of ANY sinusoidal waveform, having peak at 200 (of any unit) is 141 (of the same unit). Does that apply to watts? Are 200 peak watts the same heating value as 141 watts. They are the same units? I know you dont think so but one could easily interpret any to mean any. Granted going on its fine. Whats all this about average power? Whats the definition. I saw you 3 step calculus but, sorry I dont get it and I did fine in Calculus. Yes RMS power is half the peak power, but you call it average power without informing us what average power is to you. Al, who you appear to agree with. thinks 141 watts is the average power of 200 watts peak. He has said so. Still what is this average power? We are talking about a sine wave going on and on. Average power as used by most in audio means the average over a long time, playing music and not letting the voice coil get too hot. This is the definition I find most often for average power. I dont see how it applies to amplifiers except for the heat sinking. RMS power is continuous sine wave in this discussion. Why say it is wrong. Whats wrong with it? Come on kijanki, lets get this ironed out for everyone else who by now doesnt know what we are talking about. It is important. The early replies to you OP had no idea what to say. I do think we agree yet use of the term average to describe heating is generally used as RMS. Do you really want to say this. " Prms = 0.61Ppeak "? not 0.5 . P rms= V rms x I rms. does it not. is so .7 x .7 =.5 I am writing a paper on how the FTC got involved, its not the way most people think and its not bad. |
Al, who you appear to agree with. thinks 141 watts is the average power of 200 watts peak. He has said so. No, I have not said that. I have said that 141 watts is the RMS value of a sinusoidal power waveform having a peak of 200 watts. "RMS" in the sense of a mathematically calculated root-mean-square. And in saying that I certainly recognize that the heating which occurs in that example corresponds to 100 watts, not to 141 watts. On the other hand, though, in citing the 141 watt figure I overlooked the fact that the product of a sinusoidal voltage and a sinusoidal current is not sinusoidal, since it never goes negative in the case of a resistive load. And correspondingly positive power is being delivered to the load at all times, other than at the zero crossings. So I believe the 141 watt figure should be, per one of Kijanki’s posts early in the thread, 0.61 x 200 = 122 watts. Also, Roger, a **much** better paper on the subject than the Wikipedia writeup Kijanki referred to is the one Imhififan linked to in a post early in the thread: http://eznec.com/Amateur/RMS_Power.pdf That author’s conclusions:
Imhififan also provided the following reference early in the thread, which again is highly supportive of Kijanki’s position: http://www.n4lcd.com/RMS.pdf In any event, I agree with PTSS that Ralph’s (Atmasphere’s) advocacy of a pragmatic outlook on this issue (see his post dated 6-30-2017) is well stated and appropriate. But in going forward on that basis it seems to me that at the very least we should also acknowledge the legitimacy of Kijanki’s point, that based on a strict interpretation "RMS power" does not equal the product of RMS voltage and RMS current, and therefore does not correspond to the heating effect of a given amount of power. Regards, -- Al |
@kijanki @almarg That author’s conclusions:
Why do you quote a paper that is all about square waves when we are talking about sine waves? This is most unscientific. http://eznec.com/Amateur/RMS_Power.pdf I encourage readers, if there are any left over this foolishness, to note all the waves in the picture are square waves. The value of Vp= 1.41 x Vrms applies to sine waves only. Not to square waves where the average is 0.5 and so is the RMS. In this amateur, by its own name, paper, which is highly flawed. In the first step he aready has the average, is correct and done. However he wants to prove something odd. So he applies 1.414 to the already correct answer and gets a new answer which is incorrect. If one stops for a moment and looks at a square wave with at flat top the average and the DC value are both 1/2 the peak. Just cut the wave in half and fill in the hole. Then you get a straight DC line. No problem. But with a sine wave as the voltage peaks and current peaks there is a lot of energy at the top. The use of root 2 or 1/ root 2 ONLY APPLIES TO SINE WAVES, not triangular, not square, not you mothers fancy stiching. TRUE RMS meters actually measure the heating value of nonperodic waves and can even tell you the RMS or heating value of music. That heating value is important to your woofer. So far the author has supported his position with a flawed page from Wickipedia (flawed in their estimation also) and this paper on square waves. There is no point in going further with this. Stating there is no such thing as RMS power is a bold statemtent that has uncountable support for the fact that RMS is real, useful and applies to amplifiers. I did find today a mistake in the authors early math and will present the correct math, I dont know why this author wants to press this most unreasonable theory. As to the authors commment Al (he wont get it) and( he didnt get it.) Rudely said but true. I dont get what you said and I dont know what engineer would. http://www.n4lcd.com/RMS.pdf This is interesting and if all we are actually arguing about is the term "RMS" then we have made a mess of things. Putting the term "RMS" in front of watts is a misnomer. Once you have watts you just have watts. There are no other kind of watts for continuous waves so AVERAGE watts does not apply either. Its just WATTS, AC, DC, any periodic constant value. The RMS I believe is to show that the watts were measured by RMS methods, not peak or peak to peak methods. Perhaps we have argued over nothing but 3 letters of the alphabet, however the OP has cited papers that are incorrect and certainly have muddied the water. Heres you out guys:) We still have to agree on one thing. The heating watts of a 100 watt amplifier is 100 watts. It is measured by V rms sq/R load. The Peak watts is 200 and there are no other meaningful numbers to be stated. Using RMS to mean 'Hey anything with RMS in front of it gets to be multiplied by 1.4"... is a no no. Average watts is generally applied to a signal that is non constant and thus an average is needed. Average is not appplicable to measuring sine waves for power. In fact the average squared comes up low. |
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