How many teaspoons of sugar to get to the moon?

Answer 1

Depending on the method you want to take to get to the moon. Lets say we are going to use Nissan March (hereunder called the car) to take us to the Moon as a calculation basis.

From this basis, assume that a highway (usually we named toll road in our country) has been built for this trip

Assume that when the trip is held, no moon movement is occur

The car consumed about 5 litres for every 100 km of trip (reference: http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/NEWS/2010/_STORY/100915-01-e.html)

Moon average distance is 384,399 km (reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon)

By above data, we can calculate total fuel consumption for one trip to moon as follows:

= (384399km/100km) x 5 litre

= 19219.95 litres or equal to 15375.96 kg

Energy contained in 1 litre of fuel is described as LHV, which is 44000 kJ/kg (reference: http://www.straferight.com/forums/general-chit-chat/178951-ethanol-vs-gasoline.html)

then, total energy consumed for one trip to moon is

= 15375.96 kgx 44000 kJ/kg

= 676542240 kJ

In one teaspoon of sugar (i.e 5 grams), energy contained is 81.95 kJ (reference: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar),

So, total teaspoon of sugar needed to get to the moon is:

= 676542240 kJ/ 81.95 kJ (unit: teaspoon)

= 8255548.993288591 or rounded up to

= 8255549 teaspoon

Unfortunately, cars will break down if you try to fuel them with sugar.

But ...

Thanks to Mary Poppins, it takes only 1 to make the medicine go down.

Answer 2

It would take approximately 5.6 billion teaspoons of sugar stacked on top of each other to reach the moon, based on the average distance of 384,400 km to the moon.