I lost 245 sticks of dynamite...

dliv90

So I was watching Mythbusters the other night when they compared food energy to explosive energy saying they are equivalent measurements that differ only in the time it takes to release the potential energy. That is, it takes all day for food, and a tiny fraction of a second for explosions. That got me thinking.

There are 2.1 Mega-Joules (MJ) of energy in one stick of dynamite. Since 1 Calorie (technically 1 kilo-calorie) is equal to 4.2 Kilo-Joules, that means there is 500 Calories of potential energy in each stick of dynamite (somebody check my math). Since each pound of fat lost equals 3500 Calories, that means that for every pound you lose, that's the energy equivalent of 7 sticks of dynamite.

I've lost 35 pounds as of today, so that's 245 sticks of dynamite. Who knew I was carrying around all that extra energy!!

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For comparison's sake, here's what happens when you put 192 sticks of dynamite in a car:

http://jalopnik.com/heres-what-happens-when-you-put-192-sticks-of-dynamite-1690315524

IILikeToMoveItMoveIt

Cool!

CassidyScaglione

I once tried to convert my weight into chickens (Like, "You weigh 30 chickens") but this seems more ambitious....

Penthesilea514

Haha awesome comparison- and congratulations!

revolucia78

Really cool comparison and congrats!

Ponkeen

I've lost about 349 sticks of dynamite- so close to 350! Ha! Boy, you could really wreak havoc with 350 sticks of dynamite. It's almost obscene. Almost.

dliv90

Ponkeen wrote: »

I've lost about 349 sticks of dynamite- so close to 350! Ha! Boy, you could really wreak havoc with 350 sticks of dynamite. It's almost obscene. Almost.

NIce. I've also discover that measuring it as TNT (as opposed to dynamite sticks) is also fun. By definition, 1 gram of TNT explosive is 1 Calorie (kilo-calorie). Because 1 ton of TNT is 1 megagram, a ton of TNT equates out to 1,000,000 Calories or about 285 pounds. I bet there are people around here who have lost that much weight!!

Can you imagine losing a ton of TNT!!!!

Think there are 500 of those people around here?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkoBwFYitlU


I wonder what the entire collection of people here on MFP have collectively lost? I bet its at least 15 kilo-tons of TNT. That's like 200,000 people each losing about 20 pounds. The same yield as an atomic bomb!

mattyc772014

As JJ would say...That's Dyn-O-Mite!!!

c_leeee

So by that math with a 97lb loss I've lost 679 sticks. HOLY ENERGY BATMAN!

dliv90

c_leeee wrote: »

So by that math with a 97lb loss I've lost 679 sticks. HOLY ENERGY BATMAN!

Wow thats impressive, you approached a 1/2 ton of TNT...enough to take out a city block! Good work!

Now if we could reliably convert any matter (besides uranium and plutonium) into energy, we could use E=mc^2 as an equation and really get some huge numbers!! Anyone around here go supernova??? :-)