P BIO A Human Engine. You decide to use your body as a | StudySoup

Textbook Solutions for Sears and Zemansky's University Physics with Modern Physics

Chapter 20 Problem 20.49

Question

P BIO A Human Engine. You decide to use your body as a Carnot heat engine. The operating gas is in a tube with one end in your mouth (where the temperature is 37.0C) and the other end at the surface of your skin, at 30.0C. (a) What is the maximum efficiency of such a heat engine? Would it be a very useful engine? (b) Suppose you want to use this human engine to lift a 2.50-kg box from the floor to a tabletop 1.20 m above the floor. How much must you increase the gravitational potential energy, and how much heat input is needed to accomplish this? (c) If your favorite candy bar has 350 food calories (1 food calorie 4186 J) and 80% of the food energy goes into heat, how many of these candy bars must you eat to lift the box in this way?

Solution

Step 1 of 4)

The first step in solving 20 problem number 49 trying to solve the problem we have to refer to the textbook question: P BIO A Human Engine. You decide to use your body as a Carnot heat engine. The operating gas is in a tube with one end in your mouth (where the temperature is 37.0C) and the other end at the surface of your skin, at 30.0C. (a) What is the maximum efficiency of such a heat engine? Would it be a very useful engine? (b) Suppose you want to use this human engine to lift a 2.50-kg box from the floor to a tabletop 1.20 m above the floor. How much must you increase the gravitational potential energy, and how much heat input is needed to accomplish this? (c) If your favorite candy bar has 350 food calories (1 food calorie 4186 J) and 80% of the food energy goes into heat, how many of these candy bars must you eat to lift the box in this way?
From the textbook chapter The Second Law of Thermodynamics you will find a few key concepts needed to solve this.

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Title Sears and Zemansky's University Physics with Modern Physics 13 
Author Hugh D. Young; Roger A. Freedman; A. Lewis Ford
ISBN 9780321696861

P BIO A Human Engine. You decide to use your body as a

Chapter 20 textbook questions

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