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Calorimetry Lab

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Introduction

In this lab we are measuring the amount of energy that is contained in various snack foods. This is usually listed in the nutrition label on the back of any contained foods as a Calorie. Its listed as the amount of Calories in a product per serving. One Calorie is equal to 4,184 Joules. Joules is a measure of heat energy. We will also need to know what specific heat is. It is defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius.

We are exploring how to scientifically analyse packaged foods to calculate the amount of Calories it has, by using one of these methods of calorimetry. We will later compare it to the original Calorie count that is found in the nutrition label. A …show more content…

The amount of heat gained can be found by multiplying the (mass)(specific heat of water)(change in temperature). This follows the rule of Conservation Of Energy, that states energy can be neither created nor destroyed. Using this we are able to see that the amount of energy absorbed by the water is also equal to the amount released by the food in the …show more content…

It was not surprising that in the end the cheeto had the most Calories compared to the other snacks at 1.2 (cal/g). It was also not surprising that the percent error was high considering the conditions we were in. It wouldn't be the most accurate.
Our procedures called for constant remeasure of our equipment. We have noticed the change in the masses of some of the constant materials, which was odd. I feel like it was our own error. We observed that the food did not burn up all the way. Some pieces were still its original color instead of burned which affected our results. The results we have had is inconclusive because of how drastic the error was.
The errors in our lab were quite drastic. Our percent yields showed how much of a different our results compared to that of the nutrition labels on the package. We failed to adjust the ring stand close enough to our samples, this resulted in energy getting lost in the air instead of heating the water. We also were not very accurate with our data information and had to continually change and re record our data. We could have done a lot better in our accuracy, but had failed to do so in the

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