Practice question · Estimate
A human brain is about 2% of body weight. What share of resting energy does it burn?
Estimate on a scale from 0% (0) to 50% (50).
Hints
- Wildly disproportionate to its mass.
- About a fifth of everything you burn at rest.
Show the answer
20 (answers within ±4 count)
Why
~20%, ten times its share of body mass. No animal gets that discount free, which is why the story of the brain is really a story about calories: marrow, fire, and a shrunken gut.
Practise Human Evolution and Hominization
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