Power factor is a measurement of the energy generated by a particular cartridge in a particular firearm. It is basically computed the same way that one computes momentum and that the projectile's velocity and mass are both directly proportional to the resulting power factor.

The formula for power factor is:

bullet weight in grains * muzzle velocity in Feet per Second == power factor

IDPA takes the resulting number and uses that as the power factor but IPSC divides it by 1,000 since the last three digits are quite insignificant.

Measuring power factor is done by taking one's firearm and ammo and shooting three rounds through a chronograph at a distance of ten feet. To "Make Major" one's firearm and ammo combination must achieve 165,000 or 165 power factor, in IDPA or IPSC respectively.

Failure to meet these requirements will result in being classified under "Minor Factor" and your hits will mean less points. Failure to meet the minimum power factor of 125,000 will mean disqualification of competitor's equipment.

Note that power factor is just a measure of momentum and is in no way a definite measure of a round's stopping power for as we all know there are three important factors that constitute firearm stopping power, shot placement, shot placement and shot placement. A hit from a .22lr beats a miss with a 44 Magnum and of course a .22 in the hand beats a .45 at home, every time. Carry a gun!

Electric power transmission is typically done using alternating current (AC). Big industrial users of power, such as manufacturing, refining and reprocessing, gobble up huge amounts of this power during their daily operation.

The majority of the loads found in these industries are inductive loads, typically in the form of electric machines. As a result, a facility's effective load, from the view of the power company, may be resistive as well as inductive. Now, we know from circuit analysis that when a load with both real and imaginary impedance is connected to the power system, there exists a phase angle Θ between the voltage V at the load and the current I into the load. If the load is a capacitive load, i.e. the imaginary part of Zl is negative, and the current leads the voltage. If the load is an inductive load, i.e. the imaginary part of Zl is positive, and the current lags the voltage.

The phase angle Θ between V and I is called the power factor angle and is very important. Recall that the RMS current, I, is given by V/Z = V/(a + i*b), where a is the resistive part of the load and b is the reactive part. The real power, P, delivered to the load is VI cos(Θ), and the reactive power, Q, delivered to the load is VI sin(Θ). Increase the reactive part of the load, and the RMS current I increases and so does the reactive power, but the real power stays the same. The magnitude of the line voltage and current VI is called the apparent power, and while the units are indeed watts, it is typically written as VA, or volt-amperes.

The point is this: the greater the reactive impedance of the load, the greater the line current has to be to deliver the same real power. Since transmission lines are lossy, the power company has to suck up the loss to provide you the same real power. If your power factor angle is too high, the power company will tell you to do something about it or else. The typical solution is to install a bank of capacitors at the site which that offsets the inductive reactance of the load. The mismatch still exists but it's now at the customer's end instead of the power company's. This is called power factor correction.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.