Watt

A watt is the unit of measurement for electricity. It is equivalent to one joule per second (which is the force of one newton moving 1 meter per second in the direction of the force). One newton is equivalent to the force need to give one kilogram of matter an acceleration of one meter per second per second. Not sure what all that means? Neither is your tireless lexicographer. But I do know the next time that I flip on that 60 watt light bulb, there is a whole lot of shaking going on.

The watt, as with other terms used in physics, derives from the Scottish inventor James Watt, born on this day in 1736. (The newton was named for Isaac Newton and the joule was named for James Prescott Joule.)