Olympic Cyclist Vs. Toaster: Can He Power It?
The Toaster Challenge3 HN recommenders · recommended in 2 months, 2015-2023
24.4M views · 11 years ago · demo · evergreen
Olympic track cyclist Robert Forstemann tries to pedal hard enough to power a 700 W toaster and toast a slice of bread. The film frames it as a comparison of how much energy people consume versus how much they can generate.
HN uses it as a vivid illustration of how little sustained power a human body produces, even a champion's.
14:54Are athletes really getting faster, better, stronger? | David Epstein
TED
7.1M views • 12 years ago
1:01:17The Energy Project | Tony Schwartz | Talks at Google
Talks at Google
251K views • 18 years ago
11:22Thomas Thwaites: How I built a toaster -- from scratch
TED
282K views • 15 years ago
11:22Most People Don't Know How Bikes Work
Veritasium
24.9M views • 4 years ago
12:50Fasting vs. Eating Less: What's the Difference? (Science of Fasting)
Joseph Everett - WIL
13.2M views • 9 years ago
1:47The Counterintuitive Physics of Turning a Bike
minutephysics
855K views • 11 years ago
21:26The mathematics of weight loss | Ruben Meerman | TEDxQUT (edited version)
TEDx Talks
12.6M views • 13 years ago
7:19Cyclists' hearts: can you be so fit that you die?
Medlife Crisis
2.2M views • 8 years ago
18:28The Antique Toaster that's Better than Yours
Technology Connections
3.4M views • 7 years ago
2:39TMS Bicycle, stable without gyros or trail (TMS=two-mass-skate)
Arend Schwab
44K views • 15 years ago
7:58The Backwards Brain Bicycle - Smarter Every Day 133
SmarterEveryDay
31.6M views • 11 years ago
52:22Power is not energy: why the difference matters
Technology Connections
2.3M views • 1 year ago
7:07Smarter Every Day Challenge: Learn the Backwards Brain Bike
Mike Boyd
5.2M views • 10 years ago
5:17Mitochondria: the cell's powerhouse
Harvard Online
1.1M views • 9 years ago
13:08We Need to Rethink Exercise (Updated Version)
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
5.9M views • 2 years ago
25:22The '5kg in 50 days' Diet!
Thunderf00t
205K views • 9 years ago
2:07:01Maximizing Productivity, Physical & Mental Health with Daily Tools
Andrew Huberman
813K views • 5 years ago
2:21Race The Tube - Sprint
Epic Challenges
7.5M views • 12 years ago
11:02How to design an actually good toaster with lessons from the 1940's
Technology Connections
851K views • 6 years ago
8:26Principles of Natural Running with Dr. Mark Cucuzzella
NaturalRunningCenter
1.7M views • 14 years ago
12 comments from Hacker News
There was a video a few years ago in which a professional cyclist is connected to a generator (bike included) and their continuous power output was around 100 W which they could maintain for a few hours. But it would be unreasonable to expect this amount of exertion from an untrained person. Edit: weeeelll. I'm either thinking of a different one or completely messed up the numbers and duration: ▶ this video
Olympic cyclist working to toast a slice of bread. Insanely impressive effort by a maximally trained professional, and he's definitely toasted. This is like a cartoon technology — the general concept is right, but the scale is just waay off... Anyway, worth the look ▶ this video link
Obligatory cyclist powering a toaster with their bonkers thighs: ▶ this video IMO people often don't take the time to think about energy enough. By some quick math, I've found that the energy taken out of one 0 degree celsius ice cube to make it freeze (latent heat of fusion) is roughly equal to the energy in a ubiquitous AA battery. About 4 watt hours
Olympic track cycling medallist powers toasting a slice of bread, which takes everything he's got and leaves him exhausted: ▶ this video
Reminds me of the toaster challenge video[1] where Robert Förstemann, German track cyclist, powers a 700 Watt toaster for over a minute on an exercise bike. Absolutely insane. [1]: ▶ this video
> I vaguely recall back in one of my engineering classes we did the math on turning all of the stationary bikes at the gym into power generating units. Very much related: ▶ this video
that's not a bad sustained! Check this out: olympic (cyclist) sprinter powering a toaster! it's intense. ▶ this video
Here's a neat video of an olympic cycle sprinter powering a toaster: ▶ this video 1800 watt-hours, or 1.8 kilowatt-hours, is 20 cents worth of electricity. Using a cycle to power things makes for a neat demo, and might be good for educating people about electricity and suchlike, but anyone who expects to notice it on their energy bill or carbon footprint, or even for the installation to pay for itself, is off by a few orders of magnitude.
700W continuous output for a few minutes exerted by a professional: ▶ this video (For mere mortals, it will be indeed closer to 100W.)
It's a common myth that weightlifting only improves strength, not endurance. It is impossible to have strength and lack endurance. The myth comes from the unintuitive disconnect between muscular people and their actual weight - they clearly have to expend more energy to move larger, heavier body parts. So it may seem like their endurance is impaired but it isn't the case. Tell me this power-squatting cyclist lacks endurance: ▶ this video
Contained in them. It's shocking to see the difference. I saw this video the other day which is relevant. An Olympic cyclist powering a toaster to toast some bread. ▶ this video
You can ask people if they want some toast, are they as strong as Robert Förstemann (hint: no, they are not): ▶ this video