Weekly boss · Cold Topic
The Jevons paradox
Four minutes to read. Then the notes disappear and you explain it for 90 seconds from memory — scored on delivery and on whether the claims are actually true.
What a correct answer covers
- · Efficiency gains can increase total consumption of a resource
- · Jevons observed it with coal and steam engines in 1865
- · Mechanism: efficiency lowers effective price, demand rises to more than compensate
- · Cited in debates about energy policy and, lately, compute
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox
Stress mods · optional
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