Thursday, August 17, 2006

I Get 31 MPG. My Car Gets 25.

This is mostly just an amusing exercise in unit conversion. But consider the following assumptions:

1) On a typical day, I ingest about 2500 calories of energy.
2) On that same day, I'll walk about 2.5 miles.

If we consider the caloric value of a gallon of gas, (it's 31,217) it's a trivial calculation. I expend the energy equivalent of .08 gallons of gas each day. That works out to my body getting 31 miles per "gallon." That's not too shabby! On days that I run or bike, that number can easily shoot into the triple digits.

But wait, there's more. If I visit my Quicken account, I quickly find that I average $10.17 on grocery and dining expenses each day. So if those 2500 calories are costing me ten bucks, then I'm paying $127 per gallon of "gas!" Oh my goodness! Food is definitely an expensive fuel. Too bad I can't run on deisel.

So stop complaining about how expensive gasoline is. ;)

How much do you spend on food each day?

posted by Matthew at 10:03 PM

4 Comments:

  • now let us get a comparison between your weight and your car's :-). with all that running etc, you will likely be worse off than you were a few months ago (on fuel efficiency, i mean).

    - s.b.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:48 AM  

  • "Too bad I can't run on deisel."

    sorry, but i cannot afford not responding to this one, with "how 'bout walkin' on water?"

    - s.b.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:51 AM  

  • My family of three (one mom, two teenagers) averages $18.61 a day on groceries and/or dining out. That number also includes health and beauty aids purchased each week with our groceries.

    -k

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:04 PM  

  • $18.61 per day is impressive! That's only $6 per person. Considering that two of them are teenagers, I'd say you're doing a fantastic job.

    By Blogger Matthew, at 6:52 AM  

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