With gas prices on the rise–why does headline news have to report on the price every 1/2 hour–I thought I would do some interesting calculations to see what kind of mileage I get on my bike. I used the stats from my most recent ride as the starting point:
Ride Stats:
Distance: 32.6 mi
Time: 2 hr 9 min
Avg. Speed: 15.0 mph
Cal. Expended: 2500 (apx)
So, let's assume I go 15 mph (wind resistance is the most significant friction to overcome on a bike. As with all parasitic drag, it goes up as the square of the speed.). Given my last ride, I get 0.01304 miles per Cal (or, if you prefer a kcal…1 Cal = 1000 cal = 1Kcal)
Pepsi
Pepsi has 100 Cal. per 8oz serving. There are 16 8oz servings in a gallon. A gallon of Pepsi has 1600 Cal. That works out to 20.8 mpg of Pepsi.
Someone out there, figure out why I get different numbers if I work them differently. If I say Pepsi has 800 Cal. per liter and there are are 3.78 liters per gallon. That works out to 3024 Cal per gallon. This works out to 39.4 miles per gallon of Pepsi. Why the difference??? I cannot see where either set of numbers is wrong, but one of them has to be. Go get your 2liter out of the fridge and work it out for yourself.
Milk
Milk is sold by the gallon and has 1760 Cal per gallon. That works out to 22.9 mpg of milk
Gatorade
Gatorade (according to the bottle I have in the fridge) has 50 Cal per serving. A serving is 8oz. There are 16 servings of Gatorade in a gallon. This means that a gallon of Gatorade has 800 cal. That works out to 10.4 mpg of Gatorade.
Sweet Tea
This is how I make my sweet tea….about 1 cup of sugar in 1/2 gallon. So, that means 2 cups per gallon. According to dietitian.com, table sugar has 16 Cal. per teaspoon. There are 48 tsp in a cup. That works out to 96 tsp in 2 cups. That equals 1536 Cal. So, I would get 20 mpg of sweet tea.
Pizza
I know, pizza doesn't come in gallons, but I'm having one for dinner. a Large Pizza Hut Meat Lovers. According to Pizza Hut.com my pizza has 320 Cal/slice. It looks like there were 16 slices total. That means the whole pie has 5120 Cal. That means I would get 66.7 miles per pizza.