Erratum: TABULA
Vector 21:1, page 76
Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 76
ERRATUM¶
VECTOR 20,4 p62: TABULA: A scientific calculator for the 21st century¶
I thought I knew the difference between gram-calories and kilogram-calories, but the scenario on how long a pound of fat would light a 100W bulb (converted at 100% efficiency) somehow managed to employ a bad definition of kcal in the constant definition tables. Once this is corrected the calculator shows the following figures:
| 1 second | 170804.6 s |
| 2 watt | 100 W |
| 3 Product of lines 1 2 | 4082.328 kcal |
| 4 energy in fat | 9 kcal/g |
| 5 Dividend of lines 3 4 | 1 lb |
170804.6s is approx: 47.5h, rather more than the published 170.8s of light-bulb burn.
Apologies to anyone who went out and bought an exercise bike and a generator on the strength of the published figures. You’ll only have achieved a thousandth of the anticipated weight-loss. The method is guaranteed to yield significant results only when employed in conjunction with a calorie-reduced diet :-)