Quote from: K-Dog on Nov 22, 2023, 11:04 AMAs Diners know a barrel of oil is worth 20,000 energy slaves.

I didn't know the math that way.  According to Jason Heppenstall, Homo Saps on the planet are the equivalent of 22 Billion Energy Slaves.  Divide by 8 Billion people, 1 person= ~3 Energy Slaves.  How much is an energy slave worth?  1 gallon of gas?  1 Kw of electricity?  1 Joule?  1 BTU?  Dunno.

The point of this number of course is to demonstrate how much Work a Homo Sap can do versus how much Work a Barrel of Oil can do, but that number varies on the type of machine the oil is used to run and its efficiency at converting Heat to Work.  Muscles are actually very efficient converters of chemical energy to work without burning the same way you burn oil to get work done, which usually involves pistons or turbines.  Muscles take ATP and the energy released by breaking a phosphate bond to make the muscle contract, and the ATP is formed by running glucose through an electron transport chain that adds enough energy to ADP to allow it to hook on an extra phosphate group.  Basic biochemistry here.  The glucose is the energy fuel homo saps use, along with fat (oil) which we use to store energy on our bodies.  That tire around your waistline is actually your personal gas tank of stored energy.

FAT on your body is actually close to equal in energy to a similar quantity of oil, but you would have to be darn fat to carry around 55 gallons of body fat.  Say the typical person carries 10 gal of fat?  So you have to render down 5 people to fill one 55 gallon drum of oil!  ;D

RE