Physics question: More energy to bike or walk?

[Dubesta11]

Simple question, When biking or walking to a location and back, which one takes more energy from the person doing the action? My friend says that you have to use the same energy because you go the same distance, but I think that you loose less energy biking because the tires are more efficient. 

[Meowgi]

I would say walking takes more energy but I might be wrong, google is your friend.

[flowalex]

I think it depends on a few factors one is what is the bike made of  eg is it a carbon fiber super light one or is it  made out of steel and really heavy and are you going up a hill.  From personal experience taking a 10 speed steel bike up a steep hill take a lot more energy than it does to walk it up, but if it is a really light bike it will take less.  Plus the tire width comes into account, there are fat tire bikes that are used by year rounders (winter bikers) that have more friction because of pavement contact, and then the racing bikes like Tour de France  that have very little tire on the pavement.  When I switched my primary bike to one made of aluminum instead of my steel bike it became a lot easier for me to hit higher speeds because of less weight required eg flat ground top speed 20MPH on the Steel bike vs 30 MPH on the aluminum bike).  Also gearing matters as well

[juretrn]

I think that primary thing you have to take into account is the gear system on a bike, a single rotation of the pedals gets you a circumference of the tire of ride distance, that's why bikes have such huge tires. On a typical 26" tire that's 2,07 m. Try doing that much in a single step!

[laminutederire]

Walking gives you a more diffuse effort on the body than it does while biking. It then depends on the efficiency of the muscles involved.

In terms of energy there are no ways of knowing besides experimenting, too much parameters involved. You'd have to study the energy chain and see which one has the best efficiency per meter traveled and height climbed.

[BOOM BOX]

4 minutes ago, laminutederire said:

Walking gives you a more diffuse effort on the body than it does while biking. It then depends on the efficiency of the muscles involved.

In terms of energy there are no ways of knowing besides experimenting, too much parameters involved. You'd have to study the energy chain and see which one has the best efficiency per meter traveled and height climbed.

Well we can at least take into account that humans are about 25% efficient but like your stating, there's too many variables at play to be clear.

[Nardella]

Bikes are much more efficient.

On a bike you spend less energy maintaining balance

When you walk waste lot of energy moving your entire body up and down

When you lift your foot to take a step all the energy spent lifting it is wasted whereas when you're biking energy from a lifted foot is translated into forward motion

Bikes allow you to recover stored kinetic and potential energy allowing coasting