Gigajoule to Erg Converter

A gigajoule (GJ) is a unit of energy equal to one billion joules (10⁹ J). It represents large amounts of energy, commonly used for measuring building energy consumption, industrial processes, and fuel energy content.

The gigajoule became important with the growth of energy-intensive industries and the need to measure energy consumption in large buildings and facilities. It provided a convenient scale for energy auditing, HVAC system sizing, and industrial energy management in the latter half of the 20th century.

Gigajoules are commonly used in building energy analysis, HVAC engineering, industrial energy management, and fuel energy content specifications. They're standard for measuring annual energy consumption of large buildings, industrial process energy requirements, and natural gas energy content.

An erg is a unit of energy in the centimeter-gram-second (CGS) system, equal to 10⁻⁷ joules. It represents the work done by a force of one dyne acting through a distance of one centimeter.

The erg was developed as part of the CGS unit system in the late 19th century. It was widely used in physics and engineering before the adoption of SI units, particularly in mechanics, thermodynamics, and electromagnetic calculations where CGS units were preferred.

Ergs are rarely used in modern applications, appearing mainly in historical scientific literature and some specialized physics contexts. They've been largely replaced by joules in all practical applications, though they may still appear in some older scientific references and specialized calculations.