Foot-pound (energy) Foot-pound (energy) The foot pound-force (symbol: ft⋅lbf or ft⋅lb) is a unit of work or energy in the Engineering and Gravitational Systems in United States customary and imperial units of measure. It is the energy transferred upon applying a force of one pound-force (lbf) through a linear displacement of one foot. The corresponding SI unit is the joule. The foot-pound is often used to specify the muzzle energy of a bullet in small arms ballistics, particularly in the United States. "Foot-pound" is also used as a unit of torque (see "pound-foot (torque)"). In the United States this unit is often
Energy slave Energy slave An energy slave is that quantity of energy (ability to do work) which, when used to construct and drive non-human infrastructure (machines, roads, power grids, fuel, draft animals, wind-driven pumps, etc.) replaces a unit of human labor (actual work). An energy slave does the work of a person, through the consumption of energy in the non-human infrastructure. The term was first used by R. Buckminster Fuller in the caption of an illustration for the cover of the February 1940 issue of "Fortune" magazine, entitled "World Energy". Alfred Ubbelohde also coined the term, apparently independently, in his 1955 book,