Losing weight, of course, is a matter of burning up more calories than you take in. A calorie, as everyone knows, is defined as 'the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of water one degree centigrade.'The above is a direct quote from an old book I have. Sounds awesome, doesn't it?
Let us take a good glass of Scotch and soda. Since a gram of water is pretty close to 1 cc (to make it simple), put in plenty of ice and fill it up to about six or seven ounces, making it, say, 200 cc. Since it contains melting ice, its temperature must be 0° Centigrade (neglecting the temperature-lowering effect of the alcohol, Scotch, and gas).
Sooner or later the body must furnish 7400 calories (200 cc x 37° C) to bring it up to body temperature. Since the calorie-counter books show Scotch as 100 calories per shot, and club soda as 0 calories, we should be able to sit around all day, drinking Scotch and soda, and losing weight like mad.
Clearly, since this isn't the case there's a problem with the problem. Can you figure it out? Hint: it's not in the assumptions or approximations.
Take a minute and see if you can figure this out. You can find the answer here in about the third paragraph down.
As for me, I don't care if it's right or not -- I'm going to give this one a good run for the money
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