Question

The human body loses heat at a rate of 120W when sitting quietly at rest. If a 65 kg student takes 100 hours to read War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, how high could they have been lifted if all the heat energy lost was utilised to lift them against gravity (assuming that the force of gravity on the student remains constant)?

Answer 1

time = 100 * 3600 = 3.6 * 10^5 s
so
energy used= 120*3.6*10^5
= 432 * 10^5 Joules

= m g h = 65 * 9.81 * h
so
h = .677 * 10^5 = 67,700 meters