Gigawatt, Jigawatt or Jigowatt
The debate always continues about whether it's gigawatt, jigawatt or jigowatt.
It is Jigowatt in the BTTF universe.
The correct spelling is indeed "gigawatt". And although the Bobs got the spelling wrong the first time, they still chose to keep that spelling in the scripts for BTTF1 and the sequels. Hence I still consider that it is spelt "jigowatt" and not "gigawatt"; atleast in the BTTF universe.
Below is a transcript from the BTTF DVD commentary, Bob Gale (Writer/Producer of BTTF trilogy) explains about jigowatt.
Bob Gale: I should talk about "jigowatts" for a second.
The proper pronunciation, of course, is "gigawatts" [with a hard "G" sound], and when Bob [Zemeckis] and I were doing research, we talked to somebody who mispronounced it "jigowatts". We were actually completely unfamiliar with the term, and we thought that was how it was supposed to be said. It does come from the Greek 'gigas' [that Greek root is pronounced with a "J" sound, not a "G" sound], for gigantic, so I suppose it's not beyond the realm of possibility. But never having heard of it, we actually spelled it in the script "jigowatt". A "jigowatt" is actually supposed to be a gigawatt, a million watts. So the mystery of the gigawatts is now solved.
The fact that Bob Gale spelt it as "Jigowatts" in all the scripts should be authoritative enough.
If anybody is still not convinced, then the fact that Doc Brown also spelt it as "Jigowatts" in his letter, will help anybody realize that it is the official spelling in the BTTF universe.
(I know it might appear to be as "jigawatt" in the photo above, but it's the letter 'o' not 'a', just like it was spelt in the scripts)
It is Jigowatt in the BTTF universe.
The correct spelling is indeed "gigawatt". And although the Bobs got the spelling wrong the first time, they still chose to keep that spelling in the scripts for BTTF1 and the sequels. Hence I still consider that it is spelt "jigowatt" and not "gigawatt"; atleast in the BTTF universe.
Below is a transcript from the BTTF DVD commentary, Bob Gale (Writer/Producer of BTTF trilogy) explains about jigowatt.
Bob Gale: I should talk about "jigowatts" for a second.
The proper pronunciation, of course, is "gigawatts" [with a hard "G" sound], and when Bob [Zemeckis] and I were doing research, we talked to somebody who mispronounced it "jigowatts". We were actually completely unfamiliar with the term, and we thought that was how it was supposed to be said. It does come from the Greek 'gigas' [that Greek root is pronounced with a "J" sound, not a "G" sound], for gigantic, so I suppose it's not beyond the realm of possibility. But never having heard of it, we actually spelled it in the script "jigowatt". A "jigowatt" is actually supposed to be a gigawatt, a million watts. So the mystery of the gigawatts is now solved.
The fact that Bob Gale spelt it as "Jigowatts" in all the scripts should be authoritative enough.
If anybody is still not convinced, then the fact that Doc Brown also spelt it as "Jigowatts" in his letter, will help anybody realize that it is the official spelling in the BTTF universe.
(I know it might appear to be as "jigawatt" in the photo above, but it's the letter 'o' not 'a', just like it was spelt in the scripts)
Sign in to comment in this discussion.
Comments
Doesn't he mean a BILLION watts?
yeah, Mega is the prefix for million.
deca = 10^1 (ten)
hecto = 10^2 (hundred)
kilo = 10^3 (thousand)
mega = 10^6 (million)
giga = 10^9 (billion)
tera = 10^12 (trillion)
Lets also not get into the fact that watts are a measurement of POWER (energy per unit of time) and so a lightning bolt that had 1.21 gigawatts (or jigawatts) would have only a fraction of a milisecond to deliver its energy. The flux capacitor must be pretty awesome to absorb that amount of energy in such a short amount of time.
/science teacher
PS: I love BTTF, please do not read this as a complaint!
It's just so funny when people have no clue about the difference between energy E, joule [J] and power P, watt [W] and then make movies about it
/Electronics tech.
Please correct me if I'm wrong anybody, because this is the kind of thing where I consider myself not so smart.
Couldn't read this topic without remembering this ^
YOUNG EMMETT BROWN: What? You'd need more than a gigawatt to do that!
MARTY: ...Don't you pronounce it 'jigawatt'?
YOUNG EMMETT BROWN: Huh? No, never... actually, I like it. I'll stick with it.
MARTY: Oh god, what have I done?
But the best is that they say "2.21 jigowatts" in place of 1.21. Never understood why. However, the French translation is one of the bests around :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHqncoevWJk
As it happens, Jigawatt is an acceptable, albeit strange, pronunciation of Gigawatt.
P = U x I = 100,000,000V x 30,000A = 3,000,000,000,000W = 3TW (terawatt)
That would be 3000 giggidygiggidywatts. That'll make it roughly a 247,934% overload.
Based on Rather Dashing's info of the time the lightning lives the energy it produces is...
E = P x t = 3,000,000,000,000W x 0.000,030s = 90,000,000Ws = 25kWh
That amount of energy keeps my chili plants happy for 200h under a modest 125W lamp.
1.21GW bolt would have the energy to run that light for 4 minutes and 30.4 seconds.
I just wanted to figure this out for my own amusement :P
PS Correct me if I made an error there...
description of the weapon "super lighting rod":
"One point twenty-one gigawatts of zapping heroism."
In the opening to Episode 1, if you click on a certain item a peice of dialouge happens and the subtitles read "1.21 jigowatts"
Sorry, The quote from the movie was just too good to let this pass up.
anyone else found any funny little quirks of the game?
For example:
I introduce myself to enda as "Harry Callahan" but later she says "Ah good to see you Mr Corleone"
I never had the trouble with the name. I also chose Harry Callahan.
Since Doc is an "older kind of genius" who got his education before the 50's, Doc would logically still use the pre-60's term "jigawatt."
And Marty would use that too since he always follows Doc's lead.
Very cool indeed.
I'd love to see some evidence for this... Also, from what I've read it should have been Gigajoules, not Gigawatts. Someone should know this stuff.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gigawatt
There are two buttons that play an audio clip of the pronunciation. The first clip pronounces it as jigawatt.
Can you PayPal me some cash?
And after Peta we get Exa, Zetta and Yotta.
So if Jigo is a different prefix it would need to be even bigger than that
Says it in the trivia track on the bttf bluray.
Trivia Track was wrong then
1000 Watts = 1 kilowatt
1000 kilowatts = 1 Megawatt
1000 Megawatts = 1 Gigawatt
1,000,000,000 Watts = 1 Gigawatt
G is pronounced with a soft "g" (which sounds like a 'j') in words that follow with i, e or y when used with words of Greek or Latin origin (such as the Greek prefix "Giga") HENCE the REASON it is correctly pronounced "Jiggawatt" but it is ALWAYS 100% of the time spelled Gigawatt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_and_soft_G). There is no other truth.
Arguing about this or that means zero when the script writers were simply ignorant of the truth. Fortunately, it's only spoken in the movie so it sounds correct. Yes, that also means your 500 gigabyte hard drive is pronounced "jiggabyte" also. Some dictionaries list both as acceptable. Some are starting to correct themselves so only "j" is correct because of the Greek origin. But what bugs me is when people SPELL it "Jigawatt" or "Jigowatt". I have yet to see where spelling it with a "j" is ever correct since there is no orgin basis for that spelling. It's a soft "g" that makes it sound like a "j". it is NEVER supposed to be spelled with a "J".