Arthur and lists,
I am intrigued. You have jogged my memory to a statement a friend of mine
once made that, if consumed one per waking hour, one could derive ALL needed
energy directly from Beer. Add a well balanced pizza and all the food
groups are represented, albeit with a bit more carbs than perhaps
necessary.
Let us expand this theory to more, um, relevant tasks than race tires (not
all of us race):
- what is the BTU of a comprehensive tuneup including compression tests,
valve adjustment and (the biggie) crawling under the car 14 times to change
engine oil, tranny fluif (Hi Joe!) etc.
-What is the BTU of polishing one's car (must be higher on a hot day - SEEMS
like more work)
-How about a U joint r/r? Brakes? Finding the electrical short?!?
There has been may a Saturday where, having slept in late, I was fueled
right to dinner with only a large cappuccino or two (ferrari owner wannabe?)
followed by said Beer beverages. Strangely though, despite having
sufficient energy value, I find that motive force decreases after about 3
of them. Are we missing some vital part of this historic equation?
Dave T
Winterpeg.
-----Original Message-----
From: Arthur H. Smith <arthurhsmith@compuserve.com>
To: triumphs <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Date: January 12, 1999 10:36 AM
Subject: how to measure what you do
>
>***from the jag list***
The average (non-light) beer has 167 calories. A 6 -pack therefore has 1000
calories (1 kilo calorie - 1 kcal)1 kcal = 3.97 Btu.
We don't like to think of British things when we work on our cars, so we
convert 3.97 Btu to 0.001163 kW hours.
0.001163 kWh = 0.00156 hp (now we're talkin' - HORSEPOWER)
0.00156 hp = 51.48 lb-ft/min (0.00156*33,000)
>Now, for example, an E36 BMW has 20 lug nuts. If each is to be torqued to
>74 lb-ft to accomplish the mounting of a set of R1s,that's 1480 lb-ft
>total. If performed in an hour, that's 1480/60 which equals 24.67
>lb-ft/min.
Now, divide our expended energy of 24.57 lb-ft/min by a six pack's rating of
51.48 lb-ft/min and you get .478 six-pack, or roughly 3 beers.
Knowing that energy cannot be created or destroyed, you HAVE to drink three
beers to accomplish this job or the universe will be out of balance. Of
course, you can eat a Powerbar to balance the universal forces, but the fact
remains that mounting four tires will ALWAYS have the Pilsner Energy
Equivalent (or, PEE rating) of three beers.
So you see, each job we perform on the car will have it's own PEE rating
whether you drink beer or not. The fact that you don't drink beer does not
change the reality that a certain job expends
the equivalent energy of a fixed amount of beer - there's no short cutting
the laws of physics here.
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