Is Using a Stair Machine the Same as Climbing Stairs?
1 min read
Summary
For those looking to get some exercise, a common choice is taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
This burns calories, but if the goal is to burn calories, is it better to climb a tall building’s stairs or use a stationary stair-climbing machine?
To answer this question, one must apply the work-energy principle which says that to change the energy of a system, one must add energy to, or remove energy from, the system by doing work.
It is then necessary to define a system, which in this example would be a person and the Earth, and the energy changes involved such as kinetic energy and gravitational potential energy.
The work-energy principle equation is then applied and it turns out that climbing up a downward-moving escalator yields the same result as climbing stationary stairs as from the perspective of the escalator, you are moving upwards.
However, climbing stationary stairs is actually harder than using a stair-climbing machine as the gravitational field is not constant; it is an approximation to use the equation U=m×g×height.
