Re: my aching feet

[Tim Folkerts <tfolkert@FHSU.EDU>]

On this same vein, US News & World Report recently had a short piece on
Lance Armstrong & the Tour de France.  You'd hope a news magazine would
have better science, but, alas, no!  Among the information given

----------------------------------------------------------
> Length of route: 2,141 miles, or 346 times around Central Park
OK

> Vertical distance covered: 11.5 miles, or climbing Mount Everest twice
OK

> Calories Armstrong will burn: 75, 634, or 128 Big Macs, or 45 pounds of
pasta
OK.  That's 875 Cal/hr, which could well be.  And 590 Cal/Big MAc, which is
also right

> Number of times his heart will beat over 21 days of riding: about 952,000
Somewhat misleading.  This is not the total number of times his heart beats
in 21 days (which would work out to 32 beats/min) but presumably the number
of beats during the 86.3 hr race (or 184 beats/min).

> Number of beats for average person during that time: 230,000
No!  For the same 86.3 hr, this comes out to 44 beats per minute, which is
about half enough for an average person.

> Water he'll lose: more than 157 pounds
Possible, but it seems high.  A quick web search suggests 1-3 L/hr water
loss during exercise, but Lance is at 7 L/hr.  He may just be working that
much harder than a typical "strenuous" workout.

> His weight: 157 pounds
Perhaps, but two websites I checked list him at 165 lb.

> His water consumption: 20 gallons: 215 20-ounce water bottles
215 bottles * 20 oz/bottle * 1 gal/128 oz = 33 gal

> Power he will generate: 97.2 million watts, enough to light his hometown
of Austin for 2 hours and 18 minutes
This is probably the worst!

First of all, there is the power/energy confusion.  But that isn't all.

 From the info above,  75634 Cal*4190 J/Cal = 3.2E8 J  or almost exactly
1000 W average during the 86.3 hr race.  That will light ~1 home for 86 hr,
or 86 homes for 1 hr, or 300,000 homes for 1 sec.  Since the population of
Austin is ~500,000, it looks like he could light up his hometown for ~1
sec.

I still can't figure out where 97.2 MW came from!
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I'll fire off a letter to USN&WR in a day or two, so feel free to add your
own comments here before I do.


Tim