this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So someone better than me at maths could probably figure out how many cats I'd need to heat my with them room (and if the catfood etc needed would be cheaper than heating) ...

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

I can answer the second question:
Generally, hot-blooded mammals transform 90% of the energy they get from food into heat.
So using a cat for heating your room is about 90% as effective as burning cat food in an oven.

Here's some napkin math for where I live:
1kg of firewood has 4kWh = 4000 kcal
which is about equivalent to 1kg of really cheap dry cat food (mostly carbohydrates)

1kg of firewood costs about 40 cents
1kg of cheap dry cat food costs about 1,20€

So, cat-based heating is about 3.3x more expensive than burning pre-dried, commercially purchased firewood.
(all of these prices heavily depend on how much you buy in bulk, though. And if you care about your cat's well-being, you're gonna spend 2x more on its food)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

But cat based heating has a lower efficiency, they do not turn all energy into heat.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's why I wrote it's 3.3x more expensive, not 3x
10% of the energy is wasted on things like bodily functions, growing, running around and bringing joy to people.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

You sure it's only 10%? I would have estimated about 90%

[–] [email protected] 2 points 23 hours ago

No, 90% is just for heat.

[–] RandomVideos 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

How would it affect the math if you sold cat videos as NFTs?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

In a market economy, the value of a good increases with demand and decreases with supply.

On the Internet, there is an unlimited supply of cat videos, therefore their market value is 0.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

c/theydidthemath?