0

So I have a question that is, minimise the net energy used for a human on the journey between A and B.

Assume the human is 70kg and the distance is around 10km. Assume it is all horizontal.

I have found that speed will not come into play here because $W=F\cdot d$, being $W$ the work done, $F$ the force and $d$ the distance.

This is where I start to struggle: - apart from the initial acceleration and final deceleration of the journey I'm moving at a constant speed, so I won't do any work because $F = ma$. And my acceleration will be 0, so $F = 0$.

- but I must expend some energy walking 10km?

How do I find the energy moving from A to B?

To add complexity, how do I calculate the work done/energy consumed with a hill added in the middle?

Qmechanic
  • 220,844
Kieran Holmes-Martin
  • 15

1 Answers1

0

There is no way to calculate this from any kind of simple principles. The efficiency of a human is quite variable, and in this scenario it is zero. No work is done, but energy is consumed. Since the efficiency is zero and the work done is zero you cannot calculate the energy consumed.

Bio mechanical models are horrendously complicated and typically not easy to generalize. And they require so much in the way of empirical input that they would not be more informative than simply directly measuring the energy consumed.

Dale
  • 117,350