Have you ever thought of traveling around the world, and seeing things for yourself? Well if you ever though of it, there is a lot of work your body needs to go through to do so. Hypothetically speaking, if you were to walk the distance of the circumference of the world, you would have to walk about 24,901.5 miles. Of course in reality you cannot, as there are huge oceans between, but I will calculate the energy you would need to in reality later on. Well first of all, an average human travels at about 3 MPH while walking. Moving at this pace, it wold take you about 8,300.5 hours to round the world. (24,901.5 Miles / 3 Miles/Hour = 8,300.5 Hours) As an average human being weighing about 150 lbs, you would use 297 calories an hour, walking at this pace. (Used a Calorie Calculator, link is in sources) Resulting in your body using 2,465,248.5 calories! WOW! Could it be physically possible for your body to do this? Well perhaps, if you took numerous breaks to rest your muscles you can, but if you tried to do the whole thing in one shot you would strain and damage your muscles. Also you would produce a lot of lactic acid in your muscles, from fermentation in your cells if you do not get enough nutrients and energy. This causes cramps, OUCH!
To do this, you would need A LOT of glucose to feed your cells along with oxygen. This is how much calories in one gram of glucose. 1 gram of glucose or sugar is = to 1 carbohydrate. 1 carbohydrate is = to 4 calories. 2,465,248.5 calories / 4 = 616,312.125 carbs! Which would be like consuming 616,312.125 grams of sugar, now that is a lot! This would really be pushing the limits of your body.
Now normally, you would be making this trip by sea the whole way, or by air now-a-days. The average steam-boat travels at about 12 MPH, making your trip last about 2,075.125 hours long. (24,901.5 Miles / 12 Miles/Hour) Now if you are on the ocean, you need sufficient nutrition, otherwise you can get very ill. Sailors are known to have a disease known as scurvy, which is from malnutrition because on ships in the past, they could not eat many fresh fruits and food, everything was salted and preserved. British sailors were known as "Limeys" because of all the limes the consumed to prevent this disease. Now, I don't think this is much of a problem, but you can get sea sick. The average airplane travels at the speed of about 700 MPH. Whoa, thats fast, compared to other methods! This would clear this trip in less than 36 hours! If Phileas Fogg, the character from Around The World In 80 Days, could ride a plane, he would be in the clear!
Making an expedition around the world, now it much easier than it ever was before. Especially because of air transportation. Perhaps in the future, we can Teleportation to travel to another place. If you ever plan on doing the trip on foot, I wish you the best of luck!
