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#1
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How much energy could a person generate turning a generator in some fashion? (e.g. hand crank, treadmill, pushing a large mill wheel while being whipped by a taskmaster, etc)
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#2
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You forgot chili-eating contest
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#3
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[ QUOTE ]
How much energy could a person generate turning a generator in some fashion? [/ QUOTE ] For how long? It's really not as much as you might think. At 2000 calories per day, you use about as much energy as a 100-Watt bulb, but the majority of that energy is lost as heat, or used in metabolic processes. Only a small amount of it is available to do mechanical work. I'm far too lazy to calculate caloric expenditure, adjust for metabolic efficiency, convert to Watts, and adjust again for energy lost as heat, generator efficiency, etc. Best guess: Assuming a reasonably efficient electrical generator, someone like, say, Lance Armstrong could probably keep your computer and monitor running for a good 30 minutes or so before he slowed down. |
#4
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If I'm not mistaken, we actually eat like 2 million calories in a day.
What is listed under nutritional information is actually kilocalories (ya know, in case anybody wanted to do some calculations...) Josh |
#5
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[ QUOTE ]
If I'm not mistaken, we actually eat like 2 million calories in a day. [/ QUOTE ] Yeah, you got me. I didn't capitalize Calories. It was late, and I have a tough time playing O/8 and capitalizing at the same time. [ QUOTE ] its wrong in the sense that nobody can put out 300W of physical force over really any period of time. [/ QUOTE ] Probably, but it can't be that far off. Heck it's less than one-half horsepower, right? [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] I just made some rough calculations assuming an areobic scope of 13, metabolic efficiency of 50% (okay, just glucose), ATP-to-mechanical energy of 50%, and generator efficiency of 75%. No doubt I missed something, but I haven't taken the time to locate my notes from comparative physiology last fall. |
#6
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[ QUOTE ]
I just made some rough calculations assuming an areobic scope of 13, metabolic efficiency of 50% (okay, just glucose), ATP-to-mechanical energy of 50%, and generator efficiency of 75%. No doubt I missed something, but I haven't taken the time to locate my notes from comparative physiology last fall. [/ QUOTE ] yeah that's what i was going to do too.............. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] |
#7
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Best guess: Assuming a reasonably efficient electrical generator, someone like, say, Lance Armstrong could probably keep your computer and monitor running for a good 30 minutes or so before he slowed down. [/ QUOTE ] this has to be wrong |
#8
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its wrong in the sense that nobody can put out 300W of physical force over really any period of time.
if you really wanted to harvest peoples, the body heat would be where it's at (in like a closed ammonia cycle or something). heat from the body far outweighs any marginal physical energy we can exert (just look at metabolic pathways to see why). fim |
#9
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[ QUOTE ]
its wrong in the sense that nobody can put out 300W of physical force over really any period of time. if you really wanted to harvest peoples, the body heat would be where it's at (in like a closed ammonia cycle or something). heat from the body far outweighs any marginal physical energy we can exert (just watch the Matrix to see why). fim [/ QUOTE ] fixed |
#10
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Soylent Green is people.
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