Module 1: Everyday Objects

Weights, sizes, and nutritional content

Part A · weight of everyday objects

Small car (4-door)

~1,400 kg

Think: 1.4 tonnes. A large SUV reaches 2,500 kg.

Adult human

~70–80 kg

A car weighs about 18–20 average people.

1 litre of water

exactly 1 kg

The anchor for all weight intuition.

A4 sheet of paper

~5 g

200 sheets = 1 kg. A ream (500 sheets) = 2.5 kg.

Part B · nutritional content
Protein in 200g of cooked chicken breast
Protein~46 g
Fat~5 g
Total weight200 g

Rule of thumb: cooked chicken breast = ~23% protein by weight. So 200g gives you about 46g of protein — roughly what a 75kg person needs in an entire day.

A Snickers bar (standard, ~52 g)
Sugar~27 g
Fat~13 g
Protein~4 g
Total bar weight52 g

That 27g of sugar = about 6–7 teaspoons. The WHO recommends ≤25g free sugar per day for an adult. One Snickers already exceeds it.

Part C · anchor numbers to memorize
1 g
A paperclip, a raisin, a small pill
10 g
2 teaspoons of sugar · a 10-cent coin stack
100 g
A small apple · a deck of cards · a small yogurt
500 g
A standard bag of pasta · a thick hardcover book
1 kg
1 litre of water · a bag of sugar · a large laptop
10 kg
A large bag of rice · a medium suitcase · a toddler
70 kg
An average adult human
1,400 kg
A standard 4-door car (about 20 people)
Part D · test yourself

1. A bag of flour at the supermarket is typically how heavy?

1 kg. Sometimes also sold in 500g or 2kg bags, but 1kg is the standard. Anchor: same as 1 litre of water.

2. You eat 300g of chicken breast for dinner. How much protein is that?

About 69g of protein (23% of 300g). That's close to a full day's requirement for most adults (roughly 0.8–1g per kg of body weight, so ~60–80g for an average person).

3. How much does a full 5-person family (2 adults + 3 children) weigh together, roughly?

Roughly 280–320 kg. Two adults ~75kg each = 150kg. Three children (mixed ages) ~40kg each on average = 120kg. Total ~270kg. Less than a quarter of a car's weight.

4. A person eats 3 Snickers bars. How many teaspoons of sugar is that?

About 20 teaspoons. Each bar has ~27g sugar, three bars = ~81g. One teaspoon of sugar ≈ 4g, so 81 ÷ 4 ≈ 20 teaspoons. That's more than 3x the WHO daily recommended limit in a single snack.

5. Someone says "this package weighs about 2 pounds." What is that in kg?

About 0.9 kg — essentially 1 kg. The rule to remember: 1 pound ≈ 0.45 kg, so 2 pounds ≈ 0.9 kg. For rough estimates, "2 pounds ≈ 1 kg" is close enough.