Promoting chess discussion.
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Chess Forum Promoting chess discussion. |
> I heard recently that playing a 4 hour chess match burns as many > calories as a football game. How is this possible when you are > sitting still? Is it true? There are probably medically-oriented newsgroups that can provide a better answer than anyone here. But, for what it's worth, two arguments why this statement is probably untrue: 1) An average human brain consumes about 20W of power. About 70% of this power budget is expended on driving the sodium/potassium pumps within the brain's neurons, that are used to maintain the concentration gradients needed for the neurons to be able to 'fire'. These molecular pumps work constantly to maintain this gradient, even if the neuron is not firing. Given that (even when thinking really hard) most neurons by far aren't firing at all, it is unlikely that the power consumption could go up by too much. 2) At rest, the entire human body consumes about 200W; when doing physical sports, this can go up quite drastically (factor 3--10). Given the 20W baseline power generated by the brain, it seems quite unlikely to me that this will increase to the hundreds-of-watts range that would validate the statement you heard. This would be physically detectable by a significant increase in head temperature. Best regards, Sidney |
news:[email protected]... Gollum wrote: > I heard recently that playing a 4 hour chess match burns as many > calories as a football game. How is this possible when you are > sitting still? Is it true? There are probably medically-oriented newsgroups that can provide a better answer than anyone here. But, for what it's worth, two arguments why this statement is probably untrue: 1) An average human brain consumes about 20W of power. About 70% of this power budget is expended on driving the sodium/potassium pumps within the brain's neurons, that are used to maintain the concentration gradients needed for the neurons to be able to 'fire'. These molecular pumps work constantly to maintain this gradient, even if the neuron is not firing. Given that (even when thinking really hard) most neurons by far aren't firing at all, it is unlikely that the power consumption could go up by too much. 2) At rest, the entire human body consumes about 200W; when doing physical sports, this can go up quite drastically (factor 3--10). Given the 20W baseline power generated by the brain, it seems quite unlikely to me that this will increase to the hundreds-of-watts range that would validate the statement you heard. This would be physically detectable by a significant increase in head temperature. Best regards, Sidney ------------------- Good idea! So, if we plug a light bulb in our mouth, it should light up. Right? That would be cheaper and more convenient than buying flashlight batteries with a bunny inside. I suppose it also explains why some people get red in the face. -- Euc1id |
"Sidney Cadot" <[email protected] > wrote in message news:[email protected]... > Gollum wrote: > > > I heard recently that playing a 4 hour chess match burns as many > > calories as a football game. How is this possible when you are > > sitting still? Is it true? > > There are probably medically-oriented newsgroups that can provide a > better answer than anyone here. But, for what it's worth, two arguments > why this statement is probably untrue: > > 1) An average human brain consumes about 20W of power. About 70% of this > power budget is expended on driving the sodium/potassium pumps within > the brain's neurons, that are used to maintain the concentration > gradients needed for the neurons to be able to 'fire'. These molecular > pumps work constantly to maintain this gradient, even if the neuron is > not firing. Given that (even when thinking really hard) most neurons by > far aren't firing at all, it is unlikely that the power consumption > could go up by too much. You're overlooking indirect effects. Most of the additional energy expended by a chess player is not the energy expended by the brain itself, but rather the energy spent by their becoming nervous i.e. accelerated heart rate, accelerated breathing, increased perspiration, shaking, etc. I remember as a teen when I realized I was about to win my first tournament, I started shaking and my heart slammed around inside my chest extremely hard. To me it was making a helluva racket, so I looked up from the board to see if the people nearby could hear it. I really expected them to be staring at me in astonishment. For a short time I was probably pumping more blood than 3 football players put together. I got concerned, so I got up and got out of the tournament hall, found some stairs and ran up and down them repeatedly to try to use up all that adrenaline. I finally calmed down enough to resume the game. Needless to say, I think your analysis is faulty. > > 2) At rest, the entire human body consumes about 200W; when doing > physical sports, this can go up quite drastically (factor 3--10). Given > the 20W baseline power generated by the brain, it seems quite unlikely > to me that this will increase to the hundreds-of-watts range that would > validate the statement you heard. This would be physically detectable by > a significant increase in head temperature. > > Best regards, > > Sidney > |
> I heard recently that playing a 4 hour chess match burns as many > calories as a football game. How is this possible when you are > sitting still? Is it true? NO. Not even close. > > Smeagol |
>Gollum <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>... >> I heard recently that playing a 4 hour chess match burns as many >> calories as a football game. How is this possible when you are >> sitting still? Is it true? > >NO. Not even close. > I remembger reading that playing a tough chess game, a professional can lose five pounds or more. Most of that may or may not be water. Henri |
--------------enigE08AEB6081BF9501DA03055B Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Henri H. Arsenault wrote: > On 27 Dec 2003 05:35:30 -0800, [email protected] (George) wrote: > > >>Gollum <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>... >> >>>I heard recently that playing a 4 hour chess match burns as many >>>calories as a football game. How is this possible when you are >>>sitting still? Is it true? >> >>NO. Not even close. >> > > I remembger reading that playing a tough chess game, a professional > can lose five pounds or more. Most of that may or may not be water. I saw a serious paper saying water and salt changes are significant. Nearly all the other stuff on physiology of chess was in Russian (surprise surprise). Respiration is significantly increased, suggesting the brains oxygen consumption may increase by more than a factor of two. Still nothing like playing competitive football, but still pretty impressive. Apparently in hopeless positions our heart rate falls - totally useless research I need to know how to avoid hopeless positions (other than resigning earlier). --------------enigE08AEB6081BF9501DA03055B Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQE/7dR1GFXfHI9FVgYRApY6AJ99S8nZcWc8vXXcGlx/CZjgD5MqpQCfQ6kd Fg/t8csmxG5PHYBG7LjE5So= =2ZzT -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enigE08AEB6081BF9501DA03055B-- |
"Simon Waters" <[email protected] > wrote in message news:[email protected]... |
have looked closer. "Kerry Liles" <[email protected] > wrote in message news:[email protected]... > I am unable to read your posts - are you posting in HTML? > > > "Simon Waters" <[email protected]> wrote in message > news:[email protected]... > > |
electrons muttered something about: >I heard recently that playing a 4 hour chess match burns as many >calories as a football game. How is this possible when you are >sitting still? Is it true? > >Smeagol I read an article on this subject maybe 30 years ago, and the below may be alluding to that article (from a quick google search), from islandscene.com: "Competitive chess is not for the weak of heart, although some people might scoff at the idea that chess players are athletes. They sit for hours at a time pushing small pieces across a small board. How strenuous is that? Plenty, according to one study conducted at Temple University in the 1970s, when Bobby Fischer and his Soviet counterpart, Boris Spassky, focused the world's attention on the game. "The chess study showed tremendous stress on chess players, with blood pressure, breathing and heart rates increasing in a manner similar to their playing football, not chess," says Leroy Dubeck, a physics professor at Temple and a Masters chess player, who was involved in the study." The above is clipped out of that article, and L. Dubeck (sp?) was mentioned... dayffd I assume full responsibility for my actions, except the ones that are someone else's fault. |
news:[email protected]... > I heard recently that playing a 4 hour chess match burns as many > calories as a football game. How is this possible when you are > sitting still? Is it true? > > Smeagol No. -- "What a maroon!" - Bugs Bunny |
People keep asking this question but the answer stays the same! Geoff "SnowDog" <[email protected] > wrote in message news:[email protected]... > "Gollum" <[email protected]> wrote in message > news:[email protected]... > > I heard recently that playing a 4 hour chess match burns as many > > calories as a football game. How is this possible when you are > > sitting still? Is it true? > > > > Smeagol > > No. > > -- > "What a maroon!" > - Bugs Bunny > > |