How does your power output in climbing the stairs compare to the power output of a 100-watt light bulb? if your power could have been harnessed and the energy converted to electricity, how many 100-watt bulbs could you have kept burning during your climb?

1) Assuming an adult person has an average mass of m=80 kg, and assuming it takes about 30 seconds to climb 5 meters of stairs, the energy used by the person is

So the power output is 


And since the estimate we made is very rough, we can say that the power output of the person is comparable to the power output of the light bulb of 100 W.

2) Based on the results we found in the previous part of the exercise, since the power output of the person is comparable to the power output of 1 light bulb of 100 W, we can say that the person could have kept burning only one 100-W light bulb during the climb.