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These calculations compare the efficiency of each system based on consumption of resources. The production equation was left out, as the whole report only deals with which system is the most efficient.
For those who don't understand the miles per gallon of human activity, it's pretty simple.
one gallon gasoline contains roughly 31,000 calories. If a human were consume 31,000 calories, they could, hypothetically travel a certain distance, depending on what activity they are performing.
It just so happens that cycling burns 704 calories in one hour at 14MPH average speed.
Working that calculation out, this person could, hypothetically, continue traveling for 44 hours before they ran out of juice. 44 hours at 14mph equals 616 MPG.
You might say that the human body will break down long before that happens and that's true. However, if you only drive your car 5 miles, you are still getting roughly 30mpg, right?
That's the point. At any one time, the human body, on a bicycle in this case, achieves 616mpg while the car gets 30.
Load 4 people into a car and the per passenger miles per gallon increased to 120, leaving the bicycle far ahead of the car in efficiency.
See?
Those numbers can be worked out for each vehicle and resource consumption and efficiency can be compared.
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