I recently saw a scatter plot somewhere, I believe it was speed vs energy efficiency or something body weight vs cost of transport. And all animals, as well as most modes of transport follow a roughly anti-proportional relationship on a log-scale. If you’re fast heavy, you use a lot of energy. If I remember it right, the fastest most efficient animal was the salmon (?). There was one single outlier from that trend, an animal that is much too fast and much too efficient for its weight at the same time: Human on a bike.
I recently saw a scatter plot somewhere, I believe it was
speed vs energy efficiency or somethingbody weight vs cost of transport. And all animals, as well as most modes of transport follow a roughly anti-proportional relationship on a log-scale.If you’re fast heavy, you use a lot of energy.If I remember it right, thefastestmost efficient animal was the salmon(?). There was one single outlier from that trend, an animal that is muchtoo fast and muchtoo efficient for its weightat the same time: Human on a bike.Edit: Found it: https://slowrevealgraphs.com/2025/12/31/a-human-on-a-bicycle-is-among-the-most-efficient-forms-of-travel/
What if we gave a salmon a bike
Then we could judge a fish on it’s ability to ride a bike.