Final answer:
A 60-kg person would need to climb an 11 m stairway approximately 162 times to expend the energy from a 250.0 Cal serving of french fries.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine how many vertical climbs a 60-kg person would need to do to use all the energy from a 250.0 Cal (Calorie with a capital 'C' is equivalent to a kilocalorie in scientific terms) portion of french fries, we can use the concept of work done against gravity, which in physics is equivalent to potential energy (PE = mgh, where m is mass in kilograms, g is the acceleration due to gravity, and h is the height in meters).
First, we convert calories to joules because the standard unit for energy in Physics is the joule (J). Since 1 dietary Calorie is equal to 4184 joules, 250.0 Calories are equal to 1,046,000 joules.
Next, we calculate the work needed for one climb. For a 60 kg person climbing 11 meters, the work done (W) is given by: W = mgh = (60 kg)(9.8 m/s^2)(11 m) = 6468 joules per climb.
To find out how many climbs are needed to expend 1,046,000 joules, we divide the total energy to be expended by the energy used per climb: Number of climbs = 1,046,000 joules / 6468 joules per climb, which equals approximately 162 climbs.