How much sugar (which is a carbohydrate) would that person’s body need to metabolize to produce that much energy? You can estimate that stair-jumping is about as efficient as climbing.

Mathematical Homework Assignment for Lecture 08

[a] A person has a weight at Earth’s surface of Z pounds. What is their mass in kilograms?

[b] If that person jumps six inches into the air, they will add 1.5 joules of potential energy to their body for each kilogram of mass they are. How much potential energy will they add in total if they jump at the bottom of a staircase and land on a higher step 12 inches up?

[c] How much sugar (which is a carbohydrate) would that person’s body need to metabolize to produce that much energy? You can estimate that stair-jumping is about as efficient as climbing.

[d] A typical fun-size (not full-size) candy bar has, in addition to other ingredients, 10 grams of sugar. How many 12-inch stair-jumps would this person need to do to use up the food energy stored in the sugar of such a candy bar? Does that seem like a reasonable number of stair-jumps to do in a typical exercise session?