Wiki: "As a rough guide, 1 joule is the amount of energy required to lift a one kilogram object up by a height of about 10 centimetres on the surface of the Earth."
Kerosene 43.28 MJ/kg
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2003/EvelynGofman.shtml
A megajoule is amount of energy required to lift a tonne by height of 100 meters, so a kg of kerosene can lift 43 tons to height of 100 meters.
A tonne of kerosene can lift 4,300,000 kg to height of 1000 meters in a 1 gee environment.
Saturn V:
"Liftoff Thrust: 33 737.900 kN (7 584 582 lbf). Total Mass: 3 038 500 kg (6 698 700 lb).
...
Stage Number: 1. 1 x Stage: Saturn IC. Gross Mass: 2 286 217 kg (5 040 245 lb). Empty Mass: 135 218 kg (298 104 lb). Thrust (vac): 38 703.160 kN (8 700 816 lbf). Isp: 304 sec. Burn time: 161 sec. Isp(sl): 265 sec. Diameter: 10.06 m (33.00 ft). Span: 19.00 m (62.00 ft). Length: 42.06 m (137.99 ft). Propellants: Lox/Kerosene. No Engines: 5. Engine: F-1."
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/saturnv.htm
The first stage burns 2,150,999 kgs of Lox and kerosene in 161 seconds- about 13,360 kgs per second.
Per kg of Lox burnt about 3 kg of Kerosene is burnt, so about 10 tonnes of Kerosene is burnt per sec.
Obviously rockets are not very fuel efficient. In one sec it burns 10 times the fuel, lifts less than 4,300,000 kg, and gets no where near 1000 meters in height.
If you trimmed the weight of the Saturn V down to around 1,700,000 kgs it would accelerate at around 10 meter per sec2 and reach 1000 meters in about 14 sec [this would be somewhat near 1/2 of 4,300,000 kg mass to height 1000 in a *2 gee* environment]. Therefore you can see that the rocket has a fuel efficency of less than 1%- [or it would burn more than 10 tonnes per sec for 14 seconds- 140 tonnes of fuel compared to 1 tonne- if engine was 100% efficient- or a car has efficiency of about 25%- so a car would be at least 35 times more efficent [MPG] than rockets of Saturn V].
Joules
