My friend has won his weight in beer. How much beer is that?

[Gaudere]

Last night my friend Joel won this promotional thing for Goose Island's new beer and won "his weight in beer". Goose Island only comes in bottles, and Joel weighs, oh, about 165 pounds. How much beer will he get?

[Mangetout]

It's a pretty good approximation to say that the human body is roughly the same density as water - people sort of sink, sort of float, don't they? - on average the extra density of the bones is pretty much made up for by the body fat.

So your friend weighs 165 pounds, so that should win him about 165 pints, in America.

[burundi]

A bartender friend of mine recently told me that an average keg weighs 120 pounds. Don't know how that translates into bottles, though.

Congrats to your buddy!

[jjimm]

Originally Posted by Mangetout

It's a pretty good approximation to say that the human body is roughly the same density as water

Surely that would only be relevant if he'd won his volume in beer? The relative denisty only matters between water and beer, rather than Joel, since we are more likely to know what water weighs.

In metricity, 165 lbs = 74.84 kg, and 1 kg is 1 litre, so that's ~75 litres, which is enough to get you nicely drunk every night for about 3 weeks.

[Garfield226]

Assuming that beer has about the same density as water (1 g/cm³),

165 pounds is 74.842 kilograms (I think), and that many kilograms works out to 19.77 gallons, which works out to 2530.7 fluid ounces, which works out to about 211-12 oz. bottles.

I probably screwed up someplace, but maybe not.

[TastesLikeBurning]

How clearly defined is the prize?

Will he actually win his weight in beer, or will he win his weight in beer bottles filled with beer?

The winning of beer is not something to be taken lightly.

[Mangetout]

Originally Posted by jjimm

Surely that would only be relevant if he'd won his volume in beer? The relative denisty only matters between water and beer, rather than Joel, since we are more likely to know what water weighs.

I see what you mean; whether he is of equal density to water is moot; he could be a tiny 165-pound iridium robot, or a huge, 165-pound, gas-filled balloon monster and he would still have won the same amount of beer.

[Gest]

I worked it out to a tad under 211 bottles but it gets better. Beer has a specific gravity of 1.02 - 1.12 so let's split the difference and peg this mystery beer at 1.09. That would give you 229 bottles of beer on the wall. The problem is that a litre only equals a kilogram at a little under 4ºC (where it's most dense) but those specific gravity values are based on water at 15ºC. I'm not sure how much this puts my revised figure out. Shouldn't be far off though.

[Gest]

Make that 1.02 - 1.16.

[pulykamell]

Originally Posted by Garfield226

Assuming that beer has about the same density as water (1 g/cm³),

165 pounds is 74.842 kilograms (I think), and that many kilograms works out to 19.77 gallons, which works out to 2530.7 fluid ounces, which works out to about 211-12 oz. bottles.

I probably screwed up someplace, but maybe not.

I think you're fine. I get 19.771693 US Gallons as well, which converts to 210.898 12 oz bottles.

[Gaudere]

Will he actually win his weight in beer, or will he win his weight in beer bottles filled with beer?

I suspect that, in the interests of cheapness and ease of weighing, that the brewery will count the weight of the bottles and packaging in the "weight" of the beer.

[Spoons]

Originally Posted by TastesLikeBurning

Will he actually win his weight in beer, or will he win his weight in beer bottles filled with beer?

If he wins the bottles filled with beer, then (if I recall my days throwing cases of beer around a brewer's warehouse correctly), a case of 24 standard bottles filled with beer weighs approximately 34 pounds. So if he weighs 165 pounds, he should get about 4 cases and 20 bottles (that is, 116 bottles). Though if I was the brewer, I'd just say five cases, to allow for the approximation.

If it is just beer--that is, the weight is not supposed to include bottles or cases--then it would likely be over 200 bottles, as the others said.

[Gest]

Originally Posted by Gaudere

I suspect that, in the interests of cheapness and ease of weighing, that the brewery will count the weight of the bottles and packaging in the "weight" of the beer.

Well that would make them cheap bastards then. The brewery will have an exact idea of the properties of their beer. A twelve year old with that information and a calculator could save them the expense of having somebody actually weighing cases and just dole them out with a few remainder bottles to fill out the weight.

[Doctor Jackson]

My figures worked out to 211.25 twelve ounce bottles of beer. What I want to know is if your buddy is gonna finish that bottle that the factory rep drank 3/4 of.

[Munch]

Was it some sort of online deal? If so, what needs to happen is for you to find the largest person you can to claim the prize. You don't want some 78 lb. gymnast, you want some 320 lb. sausage inspector.

[Shirley Ujest]

Why don't they have Story Problems like this in school today?

[Tapioca Dextrin]

Originally Posted by Shirley Ujest

Why don't they have Story Problems like this in school today?

You're not suggesting this a homework question are you?

[Manduck]

A pint weighs a pound. A bottle of beer is 3/4 of a pint. So 165 pound is 165 bottles is 220 bottles.

[Manduck]

It's too bad there's not some sort of "preview post" button to catch mistakes before they go out there.

165 pounds = 165 pints = 220 bottles

[Gaudere]

Update: the brewer gave him 7 cases, or 168 bottles. They counted the weight of the bottles and rounded up--he actually weighed 6.5 cases. And Joel was heavier than 165, too (I wasn't about to ask how much he weighed before, but it's 195).

[JohnDM]

One cubic foot of a tasty beer weighs 68 pounds or 4 serpents at 17, the cobra that is.

And so 165 pounds is some 121 pints of beer.

Mmm

[Chairman Pow]

Originally Posted by JohnDM

One cubic foot of a tasty beer weighs 68 pounds or 4 serpents at 17, the cobra that is.

And so 165 pounds is some 121 pints of beer.

Mmm

Isn't King Cobra a malt liquor and not a beer?

[JohnDM]

Silly me.

And yes I have two Danish lagers and half bottle of red wine this evening.

So I can blame this on my nonsense numbers.

PS

I have had one appartion at 2:30am May 16th 1983 where I was shown geometry by way of special tents in the other set of four dimensions, the place most go at death.

And then there were two other strange number happenings.

And also I was 'told' in my mind in late November 2002 to see the Ring of Fire on February 1st 2003, and down came the orbiter shuttle Columbia through fire.

Phew!

[Mr. Blue Sky]

Originally Posted by JohnDM

I have had one appartion at 2:30am May 16th 1983 where I was shown geometry by way of special tents in the other set of four dimensions, the place most go at death.

Was it the same kind of tents they used to cover houses when they fumigate for bugs?

That would explain a lot.

[Tapioca Dextrin]

Originally Posted by Gaudere

They counted the weight of the bottles and rounded up--he actually weighed 6.5 cases.

He should have insisted on beer in plastic bottles - always a sure indicator of qulaity
. Anyhoo, where's the party?

[rocking chair]

the rhyme is:

a pint is a pound the world around.

[jjimm]

Originally Posted by rocking chair

the rhyme is:

a pint is a pound the world around.

And a kilo's a liter.
Which I think is neater.

[Derleth]

Originally Posted by jjimm

And a kilo's a liter.
Which I think is neater.

Not exactly.

Originally Posted by my cite

The kilogram is defined as the mass of the standard kilogram, a platinum-iridium bar in the custody of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) near Paris, France. Copies of this bar are kept by the standards agencies of all the major industrial nations, including the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). One kilogram equals exactly 1000 grams, or about 2.204 622 6 pounds. By design, this is approximately the mass of a liter of water.

Note the last sentence: They defined the kilogram to make it roughly equal in mass to a liter of water at STP, but it is not defined to be exactly thus. Presumably because measuring the mass of a liter of water at STP isn't as accurate, with our tools, as you need a definition to be under real laboratory conditions.

I doubt a pint of water at STP is overly close to massing one pound, either. (And, yes, the pound is a unit of mass. The unit of force is the poundal.)

[jjimm]

Don't ruin my trite doggerel with resort to the truth and facts, goddamnit.

[Chairman Pow]

Derleth, this is the kind of talk that only encourages people like JohnDM.

Oh wait, he's banned.

[Derleth]

:: Bows ::

August Derleth, Professional Killjoy
For those who think joy cometh in the mourning.

[Una Persson]

Originally Posted by Derleth

I doubt a pint of water at STP is overly close to massing one pound, either. (And, yes, the pound is a unit of mass. The unit of force is the poundal.)

And a pint is quite different in the UK and Ireland versus the US.

[asterion]

Originally Posted by Chairman Pow

Derleth, this is the kind of talk that only encourages people like JohnDM.

Oh wait, he's banned.

Of course, the funny thing is that this is the one thread where all his crap about numbers and numerology was actually somewhat appropriate.

So, how many cases of beer would it take to build a replica of the Great Pyramid, and how much would it weigh?

[1010011010]

Originally Posted by Derleth

I doubt a pint of water at STP is overly close to massing one pound, either. (And, yes, the pound is a unit of mass. The unit of force is the poundal.)

The slug is the unit of mass.

[wolfman]

So, how many cases of beer would it take to build a replica of the Great Pyramid,

Well, from experience, me and a three friends build a 5 foot dirt pyramid after 4 and a half cases, but if you want the great pyramid your gonna need a hell of a lot more beer than that.

[Derleth]

Originally Posted by 1010011010

The slug is the unit of mass.

You're right. Pound and poundal are both weight, slug is mass.

(If this is the true definition, I've found a bug in the standard Linux units utility: It defines the pound in terms of kilograms, a unit of mass, and the poundal in terms of kg m / s^2, obviously a unit of weight. The slug is defined in terms of lbf s^2 / ft, again a unit of weight. I want to be a bit more sure before I make the changes and report this, however.)

[Derleth]

Bah. I messed up: The slug is obviously (in the units programs' mind) not a unit of weight.

Damn.

[Una Persson]

Umm...guys, there's pound-mass and pound-force (lbm and lbf), used in everyday engineering calculations to signify mass and force. (And I do use them every day...I'm using them right now in another window.)

http://www.me.utexas.edu/~thermonet/..._1/1_5_p1.html

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Pound.html

This has been posted about many times before, IIRC.

[hibernicus]

Originally Posted by Una Persson

And a pint is quite different in the UK and Ireland versus the US.

That's right. The rhyme over here is "a pint of clear water weighs a pound and a quarter". An imperial pint is 20 fl oz.

[Larry Mudd]

Originally Posted by 1010011010

The slug is the unit of mass.

If you bury a pint jar of beer up to its mouth in your garden, you won't have to worry about slugs at all.