Physics Lesson on a Coke Can
Posted by robs | Filed under Total Solar Eclipse: Live from China
Not surprisingly you can get a Coke (but not Diet) even out here in Urumqi. But was surprising to me at first was the ready made physics lesson right on the side of the can. I ordered a Coke at the cool, jazz oasis of Ensun Coffee next to a gaming room with 200 Chinese kids individually deep into World of War. Instead of talking about calories the label listed 180 kj or kilo joules. In fact the food labels here are all in SI units (meters, kilograms etc) the system that scientists (and almost everybody in the world uses except the US). It was a great reminder that calories is actually a measure of energy with a precise meaning in scientific terms. 1 calorie = 4.18400 joules. (The sun provides 1,000,000,000 times more energy to the earth in the hour it takes to drink the Coke.)
Tags: energy, everyday science, SI units
