How many batteries would it take to power a human?
The video explores how many AA batteries it would take to power various animals and humans, using energy comparisons to illustrate biological power consumption. A human at rest requires about 30 AA batteries to run for one hour. The video concludes with a sponsored segment for the Anker Prime power bank.
Summary
The video opens with a fun science question: how many AA batteries would it take to power a human for an hour? To build intuition, the host first compares the energy in a single AA battery (2.9 Wh) against the metabolic needs of various animals. A worker ant could run for nearly 2 years on one battery, a bee for about 4 days, a mouse for 14 hours, a duck for 5.5 minutes, and a blue whale for just half a second — illustrating how energy consumption scales dramatically with body size.
For humans specifically, the host notes that a person at rest consumes about 86 calories per hour, which a single AA battery could sustain for roughly 2 minutes. This means approximately 30 AA batteries would be needed to power a human for one hour.
The final portion of the video transitions into a sponsored advertisement for the Anker Prime power bank, which the host claims holds the equivalent energy of those 30 AA batteries in a body 20% smaller than competing power banks. The host highlights its use of high-end LCO cells (as found in flagship smartphones), lower internal resistance compared to traditional NCM cells, rapid recharging capability of up to 250W per port and 300W total, and a display feature that shows remaining charge and real-time charging speeds for connected devices.
Key Insights
- The host claims a single AA battery (2.9 Wh) could power a worker ant for nearly 2 years, demonstrating the extreme efficiency of small insects relative to their body size.
- The host argues that energy consumption scales sharply with animal size — from 14 hours for a mouse down to just half a second for a blue whale on a single AA battery.
- The host states that the average human at rest consumes about 86 calories per hour, and a single AA battery could only sustain that for approximately 2 minutes.
- The host claims the Anker Prime power bank uses LCO cells with lower internal resistance than traditional NCM cells, enabling rapid recharging up to 250W on a single port and 300W total across all ports.
- The host highlights that the Anker Prime features a display button that shows both remaining charge level and real-time charging speed for all connected devices simultaneously.
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] How many batteries would it take to power a human for an hour? Now, a normal AA battery like this has about 2.9 W hours worth of energy. That's enough energy to keep a worker ant going for nearly 2 years. For a buzzing bee, which is just flying around and has to fight against gravity, it can last about 4 days. For a mouse, you're down to just 14 hours. If you go up to a dock, you're already down to just 5 and 1/2 minutes. If you go all the way to the biggest animal on the planet, a blue whale, this [0:32] thing will keep it going for half a second. So, what about a human?…
Full transcript available for MurmurCast members
Sign Up to AccessMore from Veritasium
How Dangerous Are Non-Stick Pans?
Non-stick pans present three main concerns: Teflon itself is chemically inert and harmless if ingested, but overheating above 300°C can release harmful fumes; the chemicals used to manufacture the coating (PFAs or 'forever chemicals') are more dangerous and can leak into the environment; and research on whether these manufacturing chemicals end up on pans and their health effects as microplastics remains incomplete.
We're trying something new...
Veritasium launches a new channel called Ingenious focused on social science stories. The first video explores how Malcolm McLean's shipping container invention revolutionized global commerce, starting with his observation of inefficient cargo loading in 1954 and leading to the creation of the SS Ideal X in partnership with engineer Keith Tantinger.
What happens to these balloons when you open the valve?
A demonstration shows that when a valve opens between a large and small balloon, the large balloon gets bigger while the small one gets smaller—counterintuitively because the smaller balloon actually has higher pressure. This occurs because polymer chains in rubber are tangled when the balloon is small and unexpanded, making it stiffer, but relax as the balloon inflates, resulting in lower pressure in larger balloons.
The Insane Real Engineering of the Nazis' Enigma
This video explains how the Enigma encryption machine worked, why it was initially unbreakable, and how British codebreakers at Bletchley Park—led by Alan Turing—developed the Bombe machine to systematically crack Nazi messages by exploiting mathematical principles and human operator errors. The breakthrough intelligence shortened World War II by an estimated two years.
How An Orbit Can Heat A Moon
Europa's eccentric orbit around Jupiter, caused by orbital resonance with Io and Ganymede, results in constant tidal flexing that generates internal heat through friction. This tidal heating mechanism is strong enough to keep Europa's subsurface ocean liquid, with the effect being even more pronounced closer to Jupiter, explaining Io's extreme volcanic activity.