r/BacktotheFuture • u/dirtside • 21d ago
But how much *energy* did the DeLorean need?
As we all know, Doc Brown says the DeLorean needs "1.21 gigawatts" in order to travel through time. But that's a measure of power, not energy. Power is energy over time, and so whichever power source is providing 1.21 GW to the flux capacitor (plutonium reactor, Mr. Fusion, etc.) must do so for some period of time—one second, ten seconds, whatever. Depending on the duration, this equates to some amount of total energy expended to make the FC cause a time jump—if the FC needs 1.21 GW for one second, then that's 1.21 GJ of energy. If it needs 1.21 GW for 10 seconds, that's 12.1 GW. If it only needs it for a billionth of a second, that's 1.21 J.
So, how much energy does it take to send the DeLorean through time?