I figured it out yesterday while taking a shower. What really helped me was Humpries comment (in Dutch) : if I wanted you to understand it I would have explained it better.
So what was missing in Alan's and Andrews explanation ? I gathered if you walk horizontally (on the map/a treadmill) for 1km at an angle of 45 dgrs. you end up 1km higher. The missing link was the fact that with 250 rounds of 4m belt of the treadmill you have to walk further to cover 1km horizontally (a2+b2=c2). It's a bit like having a computerproblem and the nerd shows you how to solve it. 20 seconds and 20 clicks later you haven't got a clou what he has done.

Thanks Humph : je gaat het pas zien als je het snapt.

So sine it will be (****, more walking to reach the virtual summit).

So, Theo, what part of

"Theo: Walking 1000m on your treadmill inclined at 45degrees simply means that you have covered a horizontal distance of 1000 x cos 45% = 707m. And in those 707 horizontal metres you have climbed 707 vertical metres."

did you not understand?

Taking a swipe at those trying to help you, and likening them to computer nerds is not big or clever, Sir.

Well, you did at least work it out Theo.
But..
The only missing thing in the answers were the fact they weren't in Dutch, and your ability to understand.
You can't get much simpler than a great big diagram explaining all the dimensions.
I must have been a dreadful maths teacher. And I never knew.

I didn't compare you or Andrew with computernerds, I compared the situation where people who are specialists try to explain or show how things work to people who don't understand one bit like me. I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression.

Aye Theo, it's all very confusing. I skipped school on the day they explained the hard sums. I blame Imperial measurements, avoirdupois and troy weights, poles and perches, chains and leagues, Fahrenheit and such like. The next thing is they will try to impose Napoleonic decimal systems on us. It will never catch on.

Here's the calculation for angles up to 20 degrees. For every horizontal km run, this is the height gain. So, if you set the treadmill at 6 degrees and run 1 km, you will be 105 metres higher than when you started.

0 0
1 17
2 35
3 52
4 70
5 87
6 105
7 123
8 141
9 158
10 176
11 194
12 213
13 231
14 249
15 268
16 287
17 306
18 325
19 344
20 364

Not a single challenger has given the right answer to Theo's joke!

Theo, no matter how long you walk on your treadmill, no matter at what angle you fix it, the result is that you have walked 0 kilometres and 0 metres height gained.
Go out and have a real walk in a real environment!

Even in our own Netherlands there are enough little hills to get some physical exercise in walking uphill. For instance, go to Nijmegen and walk the old 20km N70 route. Though the hills are only 100m high, When you have done the route you will have gained more than 500m height.

Cheers, BART

Spot on, Bart. That's the trouble with abstract thinking!

Hi Bart,
my brother lives at the top of an appartmentbuilding and I used to go up and down the staircase will full backpack. Up was tough but going down always came to soon for proper stamina.
1,5k/20%/10kg will let me sweat a lot without driving for 80 min to Nijmegen.