Final answer:
To estimate the USA's annual energy consumption in joules, multiply the per capita energy usage rate of 10,000 W by the number of seconds in a year and then by the population, resulting in approximately 1.04148 × 1020 J/year.
Step-by-step explanation:
To estimate the USA's annual energy usage in joules, we can use the information that each American uses energy at an average rate of 10,000 W. Since a watt is defined as one joule per second, we can calculate the energy usage by considering the average rate over the entire year.
With a population of 330 million people, we first find the energy usage per person by multiplying 10,000 W by the number of seconds in a year (3.156 × 107 seconds). Then, we multiply this number by the total population to estimate the annual energy usage for the whole country.
Calculating per person:
10,000 W/person × 3.156 × 107 seconds/year = 3.156 × 1011 J/person/year
For the entire USA:
3.156 × 1011 J/person/year × 330 million people = 1.04148 × 1020 J/year
This estimation is in agreement with the given data that the USA uses about 100 quads of energy each year, where one quad is equivalent to 1.055 × 1018 joules.
Therefore, 100 quads equal 100 × 1.055 × 1018 J = 1.055 × 1020 J, which rounds to approximately 1.05 × 1020 J/year.