Who's the fastest (with no restrictions) [closed]

Question

Swimsuits should not cover the neck, must not extend past the shoulders and ankles, also the suits' thickness and buoyancy is limited. Maximum thickness of the sole of the shoe should not exceed 20 mm for some events and 25 mm for another. Some medications are forbidden, similar are allowed, others are forbidden unless you have asthma. Rules of the modern Olympics, while every single of them sounds reasonable, may seem insane as a whole.

Sick of that, we decided to conduct our own Olympics. Now participants can use everything they want. The only restriction is that the only allowed energy source is one's muscle power.

Our Olympics will have only one event. There is a track of about 10 km long, and the goal is to get from the start to the finish line as fast as possible. Now I give some details.

1. The track is a regular medium-distance running or cycling track. It is a several meters wide road paved with asphalt. Mostly strait, but turns are possible. Terrain is mostly flat with insignificant hills.
2. You can assume that you will be the only participant on a track at a time, there will be no contention at any time.
3. You can use any mechanical devices (skates, bicycles, pogo sticks) unless they do not provide you extra source of energy. It is pretty hard to formalize it in the real world, so let's stick to this: any device you use should be capable of running through the same track after the race is finished without refueling of any kind, except for wearing out of some parts.
   • Horse: not OK. The animal has its own source of energy and muscle power.
   • Bicycle (not electric): OK. You use your muscle power to run the bicycle. Tires wear out during the ride, but it is a natural process.
   • Bicycle powered by a flywheel: OK, if the flywheel is stopped at the beginning of the race. When the race starts, you can use your muscle power to rotate the flywheel and to conserve some energy in it.
   • Pacemaker: not OK. It has a built-in battery. You can use it, however, if you charge the battery with a dynamo machine right after the start.
4. You should not rely on any renewable sources of energy like wind and sun. Would it be sunny or cloudy, would it be calm or wind in the face, it should not affect your result significantly.
5. However, you may expect mild weather conditions. 15-20 Celcius, partly cloudy, no precipitation.
6. You are not required to travel by ground. If you think autogyro will give you victory, feel free to try. In this case we assume that the track is strait and has no significant shortcuts.
7. If you use something you must bring it from the starting point. If you need a bottle of water, carry it with you. If you need a spare tire... well, let's assume that nothing unexpectedly breaks.
8. Regarding doping: no regulations follow. You can assume that modern rules apply, or you can assume that any medication is allowed and the athlete will be stuffed with pills to show his best and pass away after the race. Any assumptions are fine.

Your team is enrolled in the competition. You can pick any living athlete to train: if you wish so, Usein Bolt will compete for you using the devices you'll make. You have five years and one billion dollars to prepare for the race. What means of transportation will you use and how quickly will you complete the track?

I definitely have not covered some loopholes, so if you see any please leave a comment. I hope that the spirit of the competition is comprehensible. Answers for different lengths of the track are welcome.

Answer 1

Sumo Wrestlers on Tricycles

That's right! I said Sumo Wrestlers on Tricycles; and I'm not even joking!

"The three laws will lead to only one logical outcome" — Viki, iRobot

If we take a look at the rules you've established, there are a few that jump out, and we can draw some conclusions & optimizations based them:

1. The distance is 10 miles

• This means sprinters like Usein Bolt automatically fall off the list. Their bodies are built to go fast but for short distances. They burn high energy fuel (sugars), of which there are little in the body, to reach those speeds.
• To last 10 miles, your competitor will need to burn both sugars and fat for energy.

2. Doping and chemical intervention are permitted & participants are allowed to die after the race

• This means the best solution is one where the participant has just enough weight (fat, sugars, water, and muscle) to reach the finish line and die.
• If they survive at the finish line, it means they could have been further optimized to reduce their weight or increase their body's burn rate.
• Additionally, it means they can be given pain killers so their human brain doesn't realized they are killing themselves.

3. Human-powered bicycles, etc. are permitted

• Running is far less efficient then rolling: (1) Wear on feet after traveling 10 miles is a substantial contributor to loss of speed and (2) wheels allow for the use of gear reduction to directly convert strength to velocity, without fighting against the limits of bio-dynamics.
• Any winning solutions will mandatorily use gear reduction. It allows us to maximize the strength-to-speed conversion to a point not reachable with bone-based physiology.

4. Flying is permitted

• However, we will not be flying!
• Flight lets you go fast, but it's terribly inefficient. It requires a much higher energy output fuel than fat/sugars to reach a sufficient propeller speed for rapid flight.
• Consider a wheel, it has traction with the ground, meaning that nearly all the energy you put into it gets converted to velocity.
• A propeller, on the other hand, has traction only with the air. Thus, a lot of energy is lost to various fluid effects (turbulence, heat, sound, non-forward-direction escaping air, etc. etc. etc.).
• A human powered flight machine won't be able to travel as fast a land-based one. Based on current records: flight gives a max of 32km/hr (History of human-powered aircraft - Wikipedia) vs. bicycle reaching max of 280km/hr (Cyclist Neil Campbell has 174mph Guinness World Record confirmed - BBC)

5. Lastly, pacemakers are permitted if they are charged by the human during the race

• This means electricity can be used to produce optimized muscle movements
• This also means rudimentary computers or timing circuits are permitted
• Dugs + electricity + mathematically perfect timings = ideal motion without mistakes; not slowing down due to fatigue; and no freewill (aka. the perfect, dystopian athlete)

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Putting it all together

This means the winning candidate would need to meet these conditions:

1. Be extremely strong -> To operate a vehicle at high gear-reduction ratios
2. Be highly fat (I say this respectfully) -> They need enough energy in their bodies to maintain a high strength output for 10 miles
3. Ride a bicycle with a huge gear-reduction ratio (or a tricycle to improve traction with the road by having two driving wheels, like a car has)
4. Be drugged to avoid feeling fatigue
5. Be drugged to numb freewill
6. Have electrodes implanted into their muscles to give them mathematically perfect motion, and also make sure they are pushing hard enough to burn every last drop of fuel in their body by the time they reach the finish line.

So, who fits this description? Why of course it's Sumo Wrestlers on Tricycles!

And how fast can they complete this track? In under 2.2 minutes!

10km / ++280km/hr x 60min/hr = less than 2.2mins