How Many Miles Per Gallon Do YOU Get?

 

Do you know how to figure out how many miles per gallon of gas a car gets? You look in the owner's manual to see how many gallons of gas the car's tank holds. Then you fill it up with gas, and write down the mileage from the odometer. Next time you fill 'er up with gas, you write down how many gallons the tank took. With that information, you can compute how many miles you drove, and how much gas you used.

 

Just as an example, in round numbers: let's say your vehicle's tank holds 20 gallons and the odometer shows 10,000 miles. Next time you get gas, your vehicle takes in six new gallons to get to "F" for full. Your odometer shows 10,120 miles. Subtract the 10,000 miles you started with from the 10,120 miles it shows now. That means you went 120 miles on six gallons of gas. Divide the 120 by 6, and you'll come up with 20. That means you got 20 miles per gallon.

 

It's the same thing with the way your body takes in and uses up calories. Our foods and drinks, except water, contain calories. Calories are the source of our body's energy, just as gasoline provides energy for a car to run. Now, you would never, ever drink gasoline - it's poisonous and can kill you. But did you know that a gallon of gasoline contains about 31,000 calories? Our bodies are so efficient that if humans could drink gasoline instead of eating pizza and burgers for calories, we could run more than 300 miles on just one gallon of gasoline!

 

Our bodies are the ultimate hybrid engines!

 

But then again, food tastes much, much better than gasoline, and food won't kill you!

 

You can figure out how many "miles" per "gallon" of calories YOU can get, by visiting this site. It will help you learn more about how our body reacts to calorie intake, diet, and exercise, and how math can help you keep tabs on it all:

 

By Susan Darst Williams • www.GoBigEd.com • After School Treats 003 • © 2006