V-power

This is one of many cans that I got from a somewhat recent business trip to Budapest, Hungary. The main reason I selected it at this moment is because I blogged about the V can in my previous post.

There was a number of interesting energy drinks in Hungary and most of them were quite affordable. This particular one costs roughly $0.90 USD/€0.70/6 SEK and, if the illustration is to be believed, screws with your head so much that you'll trip over your own feet.

Seriously though (I promise), I find it interesting that they credit L-Carnitine with what I assume isn't so much falling over as a spring in your step. My limited research shows that the main job for L-Carnitine is to convert fat into ketones (which then is harvested and turned into paint).

There was some indication that L-Carnitine gives kids more energy so I guess that Gramex, the makers of V-Power, wasn't talking completely out of their ass as many other energy drink makers tend to do.

The actual design is quite boring though. Not awful or laughable, just boring.

When I planned this post (in my mind) I associated "V-Power" with "vertical power" and my big idea was to compare vertical (upward) power in various objects; rockets, kangaroos, snakes, elevators and so on.

This proved to be very daunting so I'll just provide the two formulas I've found - one for rocket thrust and one for muscle forces in kangaroo mice (page 10/200, figure 5) - and leave it as an exercise for you, the reader, to calculate how big a kangaroo mice has to be in order to catch a rocket leaving earth.

Post your answers, complete with calculations, in the comments.