1 food calorie = 1000 thermochemical calorie
= 4.184 kJ ≅ 4000 J.
It would be better if our
food energy came in
units of
megajoules (MJ)
since that is both a
natural unit
and a standard Metric System unit.
The minimum food energy needed by
a human per
day is
∼ 7.5 MJ
(see Wikipedia:
Food energy: Recommended daily intake).
By the by,
there has always been some mystery about the
pronunciation
of the surname
Joule and
even Joule's
contemporaries were uncertain about the pronunciation of his name.
In fact, the mystery was even used in an
advertisement
for his beer: "However you pronounce it,
it tastes great." (quoted from memory).
Which mystery led yours truly to versification:
The unit of energy is the joule
and this rhymes with drool,
but it should rhyme with bowel
to be correct for James Joule.
Also by the by,
men tended to be furry in the
19th century---actually
NOT an uncommon look in Moscow, Idaho.
Credit/Permission:
Henry Roscoe (1833--1915)
from
Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe,
The Life & Experiences of Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe, 1906, Macmillan: London and New York,
p. 120 plate
(uploaded to Wikipedia
by User:Astrochemist,
2007) /
Public domain.
Image link: Wikipedia:
File:Joule James sitting.jpg.
Local file: local link: james_joule.html.
File: Physics file:
james_joule.html.
