Originally Posted by
wphamilton
Two things.
If I have expended 800 kilojoules for an hour, and you have expended 1000 for an hour, yet both of our power meters read 250 watts, which of us produced more power?
Secondly, if my drive loses 5% power between the crank and the ground, and your's loses 2%, and both of our crank meters read 250 watts, which of us produced more power?
If he wanted a simple physics answer to torque/cadence/power that's one thing. From the OP post I infer two questions. IS it a basic physics question (no), and what effect does cadence have on power? Do the crank meters read the same - yes, presuming that they're accurate. Include cyclists in the scenario, as he does, well then there's a difference.
Two things:
1) You are conflating power and energy. They are related but different. Energy measures the work that's delivered. Power measures the rate at which it is delivered.
2) He literally asked a simple physics question and you inferred a more complicated question than the one posed.
Again, I'm not saying you are wrong; just that the question was asked and answered several times in the first 10 posts, yet this thread has gone on for many pages arguing about a question that wasn't asked. It may be a related question; it may be a more interesting question; but it's not the question originally asked.
Which makes this thread a leading contender for 41-iest Thread of the Year.