h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: 10,000 Steps to Health – Myth or Magic? - A19546068
Author: Eco Worrier - U290

Having walked seven miles (13,000 steps) with the dog on Saturday, walking has been on my mind. So I wrote this!

Very good stuff. I used to walk a hell of a lot once, you'd find me out on the Peaks every weekend. Now I'm fat and unfit, and I really miss it.

One piece of advice I'd suggest is that if you are going to be walking on hard surfaces such as a road then get a good pair of well-cushioned trainers. You don't have to be a runner to get the benefit of wearing them.

Thanks! I've added that about the trainers.

Glad you wrote that. If it was in German, I'd print it out and take to a colleague, who'll take part in a special program to lose wait, and the '10,000 steps a day' is part of that. (She'll get to wear such a steps meter). Don't know, but maybe it's worth mentioning that a step isn't a step, and to get best results, you have to find out the length of your personal step length first and set the step meter accordingly.

Do you mean a 'stair' isn't a step? They are considered part of the 10,000 steps here, plus knowing the milage done isn't so much part of it here, so most people can get on with just counting the steps.

I prefer to know how far I've walked, but if you sent off for the free ones when the companies were promoting them, they only count steps. That includes Walkers, Kellogs (I think) and ITV did some too, that was to do with the National Walking Week. They must have been the sponsors the year we took part.

No, I didn't mean stair, sorry for wording it so badly. Steps have a digfferent length, small people will probably make smaller steps than tall people. The step meter my colleague will wear has to be programmed with her step length, apparently it's quite a sophisticated devive, with the results being entered into a PC for checking. I haven't really investigated, it was just seeing my boss measuring the distance between the two shop entrances and then telling my colleague she'd have to walk that distance making normal steps so that he could set her step meter.

Ah, I see. I don't know about any groups that use the step meter that might say distance is the thing, but really it doesn't matter how long a stride is, as long as you do the amount of steps, or the amount of time, that you want.

For some people brisk walking will be quicker than someone else's briskness, depending on how fit they are to start with.

Maybe I'll get an opportunity to have a closer look at the thing tomorrow at work, then I'll report back. I heard my boss mention the 10,000 steps, so I don't know why they need the length, too.

That would be helpful!

This is excellent. The only thing you need to explain better is why the walking should be brisk - at the moment you only mention increased heart rate as a way of knowing you're walking at the right speed, but presumably this is the whole reason why you have to walk briskly.

If I was feeling really pedantic, I'd point out the full stop missing at the end of footnote one, too. But I'm not.

Great job

I asked my boss about the lenght-thing, and he said that was just an additional feature to let people know how many kilometres they've walked and how many kalories they've burnt (when setting the metre, you give the weight, too). He admitted that the only reliable result you'll get is the number of steps, though.

B'Elana.

Skanky, I've made those changes.

I have a suggestion as to why 10,000 was chosen as the number.

In English, there is a word for 10^1 - "ten". There's a word for 10^2 - "hundred". And there's a word for 10^3 - "thousand". The next power of ten we give a special word to is 10^6 - "million". Amounts in between are compounds - "ten thousand", "hundred thousand".

BUT... in Japanese, it's different.

Just as we do, they have a word for 10^1 - "ju", and for 10^2, "hyaku", and for 10^3, "sen".

BUT, unlike us, they have a separate word for 10^4 - "man". Hence "manpo-kei".

The arbitrary selection of 10,000 as the number may be to do with the Japanese language as much as anything else.

SoRB

This is a good Entry - I'd never have imagined there would be so much detail when it comes to a seemingly simple thing like walking a certain number of steps.

Looks good to me now - great work

That's really useful, I've added that about the separate word for 10,000 to the entry.

You're welcome!



SoRB

One suggestion: it might be worth having a footnote after "type 2 diabetes" to give a brief description of what type 2 is.

I've added a link instead.

Very informative. I couldn't help but think that leaving the remotes on top of the devices they operate would have the added benefit of not losing them in the sofa cushions