The way to lose weight is to burn more energy than you take in. One way of burning energy is to maintain your temperature at a steady 37°C (98.6°F).

How much energy is required with a can of Coca-Cola? The standard formula is that the amount of energy required is:

(amount of substance) x (specific heat) x (change in temperature)

What are the numbers for a can of Coke? The can I have here says it contains 355 mL. If I were to serve it cold in a glass with melting ice, it would start off with a temperature of 0°C. I don't know the exact specific heat of Coke, but I think it's fair to assume it's in the ballpark of the specific heat of water (1 calorie per mL per degree C). Coke is mostly water, anyway. Substituting those numbers gives:

355 x 1 x 37 = 13,135 calories.

Under the Calories heading on the side of the can, I read 140. Even allowing for large differences between the physical properties of water and the physical properties of Coke, that's a tremendous difference. Every can of Coke ought to actually burn a net 12,995 calories if it's served cold. These numbers can easily be verified by anybody who wants to buy a can of Coke (Disclosure: I own a little bit of stock in the Coca-Cola Company).

Drinking Coke ought to help people lose weight like crazy. So why hasn't the Coca-Cola diet caught on?

(In reply to re: Solution by levik)

The basic message is right, though I do have some quibbles with it as a solution. Technically, when talking about nutrition and exercise, you're supposed to write "Calorie" with a capital C (I used some awkward phrasing in the problem to avoid having to write "140 Calories"). For some reason, this represents a kilocalorie. Most people have never heard of two different kinds of calories, so they write the food one with a lowercase C.

Posted by friedlinguini on 2002-06-25 13:27:27