The most common semi-smarmy question I get about riding my bike to work is: “How many MPG do you get with that thing?” So I decided to do more bike math. There are 2080 calories in one gallon of 2% milk. Using the calories burned count from last year [220 calories per day [6.6 miles per day]] I get 62.7 miles per gallon of milk while riding my bike.
2080/220 = 9.454545
9.5 days * 6.6 miles per day = 62.7 mpg.
If the average cost of milk is $3.50 a gallon, it costs me a little more than 5 ¢ per mile.
3.5/62.7 = 0.0558 $ per mile.
So the next time someone asks, I’ll tell them that I get 62.7 mpg of milk which is about 5¢ per mile; and secure my nerddom for all time.
July 17th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I’m really glad you figured this out. I’ve seriously been wondering for awhile.
Well, not for milk, specifically, but for everything I put in my tank.
If you ever do rice/soy milk and Edmund Fitzgerald variations on this theme, let me know.
July 17th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
I don’t actually drink much milk anymore, unless it is soy milk in my cereal. It looks like a gallon of soy milk is pretty close to 2%; 2176 calories per gallon. Soy milk is about twice the price of regular, non-organic milk, so your fuel costs you more per mile [but has other benefits, much like higher octane gasoline].
July 24th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
If biking burns 36 calories per mile and nursing burns 500 calories a day, than I’m nursing the daily caloric equivalent of 13.9 bike-miles. That’s about a mile and a half per feeding.