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> On the other hand, pedaling a bicycle, or pushing a car is a lot of work. One of these is not like the other. Pedalling a bike doesn't come even close. Huma
by contravariant 3y ago
> On the other hand, pedaling a bicycle, or pushing a car is a lot of work.
One of these is not like the other. Pedalling a bike doesn't come even close.
Humans consume several million calories per day at most, now as a rule of thumb a million calories is about the same as a kWh. And the only reason they consume that much energy is because the human body is inefficient at converting this heat to work. Even the best cyclists struggle to produce anything more than a few hundred watt.
More to the point, humans struggle to power a light bulb, let alone a house.
- Wicher 3y ago> And the only reason they consume that much energy is because the human body is inefficient at converting this heat to work. The human body does not convert heat to work. We do something entirely different (look up the "ATP/ADP cycle"). But yeah there are certainly conversion losses in the conversion of egg sandwiches to labor. 25% or so. Which is actually pretty good; you won't be able to match that with a steam machine built over the weekend (start with solving the problem of setting eggs on fire?).