12 May 2008

Apples everywhere


I went on a journey to Covent Garden fruit and veg market by battersea park in the hope of finding many apples for a good price. 18p per apple is better than the 25p at Sainsburies, but after taking into account time and travel expenses it worked out at a £1 save on that many apples, whoo hoo.

04 May 2008

Rowing, possible 500W output

Our bodies have a 15% efficiency of turning food energy into excercise. So say we ate an apple of 100Wh it would result in 15Wh to be dedicated towards physical activity. Say we used a rowing machine that was 50% efficient in converting our mechanical movement into electricity. So 7.5Wh were produced from that apple, enough to power an ipod for 6 hours and 15 minutes.

Only slightly impressive.

BUT, we as humans are very lucky because we can STORE energy. So the 3 slices of pizza we ate a good while previously can still be drawn on many hours or even days later. That same rowing machine could possibly produce as much a 500W sustained power for about 10minutes or more. enough to power a 120W Flat screen television for (500w x 60sec x 10min)= 300000W = 83.33Wh = 40min.

01 May 2008

Bad visual explanation in weight watchers


In the weight watchers pamphlet, they have this section, that tries to explain portion sizes in comparison to other things. What genius compares the size of a potato to a light bulb. What is the size of a light bulb. How does a CD give you an idea of how big your bagel is. I just thought these examples really badly chosen.

Skittles


This many skittles posses 200W (+1)