All you need is some Friends to brighten up your day!
Keywords:
TV programme, Physics, Biology, Metabolism, Laughter, Power-Energy, FriendsAbstract
This paper is based on the popular comedy TV show Friends and aims to work out how much laughter is exercised in whole a series. This is used to work out how much energy is used for a person to laugh constantly at that amount of time. Thereafter using this amount of energy, it is calculated how many standard 100 W LED light bulbs can be powered for one minute using that energy. The key findings of this paper are that the approximate total amount of laughing in a whole Friends series is 1207 minutes, where 1520.82 calories based on that laughter can increase heart rate up to 20% from rest level [1]. This amount of energy is equivalent to lighting up a standard 100 W LED light bulb, assuming all the energy is used to light up the bulb.
References
Buchowski, M., Majchrzak, K., Blomquist, K., Chen, K., Byrne, D. & Bachorowski, J. (2006) Energy expenditure of genuine laughter. International Journal of Obesity. 31(1):131-137.
Crane, D. & Kauffmann, M. (1994-2004) Friends. [TV Series]. National Broadcasting Company (NBC). First broadcast 22 September 1994.
Friends (TV Series 1994–2004) - IMDb [Internet]. IMDb. 2019 [Accessed 6th March 2019]. Available from: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108778/?ref_=ttco_co_tt
Goldberg-Meehan, S., Crane, D. & Kauffmann, M. (1999) The One Where Ross Hugs Rachel. Friends. Season 6, Episode 2. [TV Episode] National Broadcasting Company (NBC). First broadcast 30 September 1999.
Hospital for Special Surgery (2009) Burning Calories with Exercise: Calculating Estimated Energy Expenditure [Internet]. [Accessed 6th March 2019]. Available from: https://www.hss.edu/conditions_burning-calories-with-exercise-calculating-estimated-energy-expenditure.asp
Owren, M.J. & Bachorowski, J.A. (2003) Reconsidering the evolution of nonlinguistic communication: the case of laughter. J Nonverbal Behavior. 27:183–200.
Yim, J. (2016) Therapeutic Benefits of Laughter in Mental Health: A Theoretical Review. The Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine. 239(3):243-249.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. All content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC-BY 4.0).
