this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
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This is a commonly quoted fun fact that is not really true. There are 2 different definitions of calorie. One means the absolute amount of energy in an object, the other means the bioavailable amount of energy that a human can extract from it using their digestive system.
So every physical object that exists has some amount of potential energy contained within it which we can express in calories, but that doesn't mean it has any bioavailable calories. For example glass has some significant amount of energy contained within it, but it has 0 bioavailable calories.
This "fun fact" mixes up the two definitions, making the statement meaningless.
(Nothing against you OP, this is a commonly repeated falsehood)
Thank you for the clarification. I wanted to go along with the joke of it looking “edible”, but context is appreciated :)
And, if I have to explain the joke: it's just E=mc² (the Einstein thing ... well, the Einstein's thing's approximation), the energy (E) is the same for all mass (m) since the c is a constant.
You get the same 21 billon kcal from 1g of apples as from 1g of plutonium.
And since it's usually well known humans do not devour mass into pure energy that might trigger ppls sense of humour.
Also "potential energy" phrase is weird in that context.
It is a different definition, but it's the same unit... it's also more like saying "that ball of yarn is 10 metres" - the ball itself isn't 10 metres long in any dimension, but the meaning is clear given the context, as it would if you said "it's 0.05 metres". By having two meanings distinguishable by context, it seems like two definitions to me.
(Different definition/pov of what is measured, yes, that is where the joke is.)
Hehe, look at this falsehood - there is no way this things can talk!
(However imho this is a more clear example of 'two different definitions' of the main concept/phrase inferentially mixed together for comedic effect, bcs words can explicitly have more than one meaning, and yes, usually you can tell from the context.)
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This pic is def:
Which definition does full corn kernels fall into?