Question about power and energy lost as kinetic energy in electrical circuits

[The Fish]

Hello all!

For science fair this year I might be do something about electronics, maybe about how much energy is lost across electrical wiring because of resistance in the form of heat.

I read this on a website:

"Power rating

When current flows through a resistance, electrical energy is converted into heat. This is obvious in an electric torch where the lamp filament heats up and glows white hot, see Chapter 1. Although the result may be less evident or imperceptible, exactly the same process of energy conversion goes on when current flows through any electronic component.

The power output of a lamp, resistor, or other component, is defined as the rate of change of electrical energy to heat, light, or some other form of energy. Power is measured in watts, W, or milliwatts, mW, and can be calculated from:

P = VI

where P is power.

What is the power output of a resistor when the voltage across it is 6 V, and the current flowing through it is 100 mA?

0.6 W of heat are generated in this resistor."

Would that mean that the I could find the amount of heat produced in watts of a segment of electrical wire, by the equation P = VI? Or does that only work if it's a circuit component?

[Drake Glau]

Well, if it's not in a circuit, you have no current or voltage so yea it needs to be a circuit component

I feel like this would be highly dependent on the resistor material because the energy can come out as heat or light and some resistors emit more light than others which is where the conservation of energy begins to kick in.

P=VI

Watts is also J/s which would be heat/time

So really you could just do a quick lab to measure the temperature of the resistor, find its mass, look up its specific heat value and plug and chug [q=mc(delta)T]/time. Which boils down to Q/T, which is a watt, which is power...

Side note - changes in temperature of a resistor can significantly change is resistance value if it begins to get really hot. This is kind of why your light bulb filaments break occasionally because as they get hotter and hotter there resistance begins to drop and since V=IR or I=V/R your current begins to increase and eventually the wire just breaks, much like a fuse