ark (04/25/83)
As is true with many computer people, my phusical shape is not as good as I would like. The appalling lack of snow in the Northeast in the past few winters has not helped matters. I just took a step toward remedying that by buying an exercise machine -- one of those bicycle-like affairs that you pedal but it doesn't go anywhere. This machine has a scale that lets you know how much work you're doing. Actually, it measures torque and RPM, and has a scale that lets you convert that to power, and, by multiplying by time, to energy. So far, so good. But the best this machine can measure is how many calories, or joules, or whatever, the MACHINE is dissipating. It does not tell me how much energy I am dissipating. In order to produce some amount of energy at my legs, I must produce some larger amount of energy overall. The ratio between these numbers might well be called my thermal efficiency. This number is surely well-known for people under various conditions, but I don't know it. Can someone help?