jouleban

Jouleban (symbol Jb) is a fictional unit of energy used in speculative fiction and some theoretical exercises to quantify energy flows in future technologies. It is not part of the International System of Units, and its value is not standardized across works.

Etymology and usage: The term blends the established unit joule with the suffix -ban, suggesting a distinct but related energy scale. In most narratives, 1 jouleban is defined as 1,000 joules (one kilojoule), though some settings employ 1 Jb = 10^6 joules (one megajoule). The symbol is typically written as Jb.

Applications: Jouleban commonly appears in world-building contexts such as spacecraft power budgets, reactor outputs, or theoretical energy accounting. It provides a convenient scale for comparing large energy flows without resorting to large strings of joules.

Relation to SI and practical notes: Because it is fictional, jouleban has no official conversion to standard SI units beyond the definition chosen in a given work. If a setting uses 1 Jb = 1 kJ, then 1 Jb equals 0.2778 watt-hours (0.0002778 kilowatt-hours).

In culture and references: The term crops up in science-fiction literature, games, and speculative physics outlines as a narrative device to describe energy quantities at a scale between kilojoules and megajoules. Its precise meaning is determined by the author or designer and is not universal.