Macbook Pro fan keeps running (2011)

Question

Hi there,  I recently charged my 2011 13" Macbook Pro to 100%. Upon using it in class for about 2hours the Fan was constalny running and CPU raging on high. Moreover, the battery goes down to 20% in this time period. For reference, I only had Google Chrome, Mail and Word open in this class period. Whats going on? As I type this to you, the fan is this going strong and my battery in 20%
Any ideas? Should I contact the Apple store as I do have an Apple Care Warranty on the machine
I also have a Curcial 512GB SSD in the machine but this is the first time this is happening in the 3 weeks use in the SSD installed and upadted to Apples latest update a few days ago
Thanks

Answer 1

Just to narrow things down a bit.
I had the same problem and discovered the following.  When using Firefox, my battery ran out of time faster, my mac was hot and fan ran periodically. When using FF with Silverlight, battery time was even worse, fan almost always on and computer was hot.
On 3rd test, I moved all my open pages from FF to Safari and have been testing the battery time with FF closed and Safari open. So far, my fan has not come on once. Going to watch a video online to see if it's better as well. My diagnostics show Silverlight, by far, is a power hog, FF was the next biggest problem but not bad.
Basic details from rough testing.
6/21/12 with Silverlight running in FF
1.34 min at 12.39 pm  full power on screen, full charge
.32 min at 1.39 pm
just over 1 hr.
6/22/12 - activity monitor open, FF, no silverlight.
3.47 min at 9.38 am 3/4 power on screen, full charge, silverlight off and on.
.19 min at 12.28 pm
Almost 3 hrs.
6/21/12 after recharge. Full charge, 3/4 power on screen lighting. All work in Safari, FF closed.
4.39 min at 5.55 pm using safari and not firefox.
3.59 at 7.02 pm
waiting to see.
Hope this helps anyone.
Using a MBP 15", late 2011, with Snow Leopard, v. 10.6.8, Hybrid hard drive