How powerful is a waterfall, like, say, Niagara Falls?

How powerful is a waterfall? How can the power be calculated?

One example is Niagara Falls.

Water flows over a section of Niagara Falls at a rate of 1.20 x 10^6 kg/s and falls 50.0 m. What is the power dissipated by the waterfall?

How much energy does this much water have at the top of the falls? The energy would be gravitational energy, mgh.

The problem gives you the mass (1200000 kg), g = 9.8 m/s^2, and the height is 50 m.

To get the power, you just need to divide energy by time. In this problem you’re given the fact that the mass is the amount per second, so time = 1 s.

The final equation would look like this then:

P = mgh / t

P = 120000 kg x 9.8 m/s^2 * 50 m / 1 s

P = 588,000,000 Watts

How powerful is a waterfall, like, say, Niagara Falls?