P6_5 Pedalling Power

Abstract

Since the devastating effects of burning fossil fuels has been brought to light, the urgency to find reliable, sustainable energy sources has become ever more prevalent. This article explores whether or not it would be possible to power Leicester for 24 hours by human pedal power alone. We found that this would be theoretically possible, but unrealistic in reality as it requires each citizen in Leicester to pedal for 7.7 hours at a constant velocity of 8.30 ms^-1. Also, we find that a human of mass 70 kg performing this task would burn 7890 kilocalories.