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Which puts out more energy, a human body or the sun?

Asked by 6rant6 (13700points) January 27th, 2011

I read somewhere today that if the human body were as massive as the sun, we would be hotter than the sun. I related this to a friend who insisted that was poppycock. The sun was nuclear, we are chemical. And nuclear is C^2 better.

I pointed out that the sun is taking billions of years to die out and we have enough fuel for maybe a couple of months. Certainly at some point, a fast chemical reaction overtakes a nuclear one, but where?

Anyone have a smart way to analyze this? Obviously it can be done on a via brute force – using calories in and out for the human, converting that to energy, figuring out the energy generated by the carbon cycle in the sun… yada, yada… Anyone have an elegant idea?

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