Thursday, October 26, 2006

You eat too much? You use too much gasoline.

Somebody did a little study on Power-to-Weight ratio and came up with an interesting conclusion: If you're overweight, you probably consume more fuel in your automobile.

Want to spend less at the pump? Lose some weight. That's the implication of a new study that says Americans are burning nearly 1 billion more gallons of gasoline each year than they did in 1960 because of their expanding waistlines. Simply put, more weight in the car means lower gas mileage.

[...]

"The bottom line is that our hunger for food and our hunger for oil are not independent. There is a relationship between the two," said University of Illinois researcher Sheldon Jacobson, a study co-author.

"If a person reduces the weight in their car, either by removing excess baggage, carrying around less weight in their trunk, or yes, even losing weight, they will indeed see a drop in their fuel consumption."
Sounds reasonable. The ability to accelerate and overcome inertia is directly affected by weight. Obesity adds weight to the vehicle mass, divided by the force of gravity which then results in more force being required to achieve acceleration and maintain speed.

I'm not certain, but I think Isaac Newton worked that out.

Which means that people who are consuming way too much food, are also quite likely consuming way too much gasoline.

And, some people just consume way too much air. Guess which one from this video.

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