MAN'S ENERGY.

Mataura Ensign, 15 January 1913, Page 4

MAN'S ENERGY.

FORCE IN THE HUMAN FRAME. "1 have no energy to-day," is a common remark. Many people feeling out of sorts and weary have an idea they lack energy, but they do not. Rather they possess a marvellous amount of energy. If they did not they would die, for it takes a great amount of energy to live. The average normal man requires 2500 calories of energy each day. A calorie is a definite amount or' degree of heat, Just as a thermal unit is that amount of' heat necessary to raise one pint of water | one degree Fahrenheit, one calorie is that degree of heat necessary to raise one kilogram one degree centigrade in' temperature. Translated to Fahrenheit, j again, this means one calorie is that; amount of heat necessary to raise four! pints of water, or two quarts, four de-j grees in temperature Fahrenheit. One calorie is therefore four times as great' In energy as a thermal unit. i Just to maintain the necessary heat of the body and support its various ac-1 tivities the average man needs 10,000' thermal units of energy each d-iv. This | amount of energy Is sufficient to raise' one ton of water five degrees in temper- j aturc or to raise the temperature of a-nr.-n weighing 1251b from 72deg. to 115deg. j llie energy represented in the daily] ration of the average man. converted I | into mechanical work, would raise 3860; tons one foot high. The same amount of energy would be used by a man weighing 1251b in walking 190 miles at the rate of three niiles an hour-. The same energy would carry a man on a bicycle 570 miles further, or 760 miles. It must l>e remembered, however, that only a small part of this enormous energy which is introduced into the body j by the food is actually convertible for j use in muscular work. At least four- | fifths of all the food fuel taken into the j body and assimilated is consumed to j maintain animal heat.