Sage Davis

Chemistry
Calorimetry Challenge
02/08/19

Combustion Games
(If I were a rapper I’d be MC delta T)

This lab was very informative that also posed some challenges providing another
opportunity to learn more about the lab and how a calorimeter works. The learning goals for this
lab were, ​determine the amount of thermal energy that is released from the combustion of food
(fat and carbohydrates) to learn more about the 4-4-9 rule through a scientific experiment, learn
to use the terms temperature, heat, thermal energy, energy transfer , energy transformation and
the Law of Conservation of Energy, and be able to explain what a calorimeter is, how it works,
and what information we can obtain from it. The last goal was to be able to describe the
relationship between breaking as well as forming chemical bonds and describe chemical and
thermal energy in a chemical reaction. ​The challenges presented by this investigation were
trying to get the most efficient calorimeter, get the most accurate answers, and for us, getting
the food to burn without losing too much energy.
In this lab, we analyzed the caloric content of food through calorimeters of our own
design. On top of that, we used this data to find how efficient our design was and what makes
one calorimeter more efficient than another.
A balanced chemical equation for the combustion of simple sugar would be:
❖ C​6​H​12​O​6​ + 6O​2​ → 6CO​2​ +
6H​2​O
In this equation, you see glucose, C​6​H​12​O​6​,
combining with O​2​. As the oxygen combines with the
glucose through combustion, the CO​2​ and H​2​O are
released as products of this combustion. H​2​O and
CO​2​ are always products of combustion sometimes
accompanied by other molecules.
A chemical reaction happens when two or
more​ particles collide​ with one another. The bonds
are held
together by
chemical potential energy​. The​ reactant bonds break
when the ​energy is absorbed​ and then they ​release the
energy​ when they break. The particles then are
rearranged and the ​new bonds form​. The ​thermal
energy​ is the energy released after overcoming the net
energy, the ​activation energy​ is the energy needed to
break the reactant bonds, and the ​activated state​ is the
peak of the chemical potential energy and the maximum
kinetic energy.
Sage Davis
Chemistry
Calorimetry Challenge
02/08/19
A small c calorie is the energy that is needed to raise one gram of water by one degree
Celsius. A kilo Calorie is the energy that is needed to raise one kilogram of water by one degree
Celsius. It is also used when measuring the calories in foods and is the equivalent of 1000 small
calories. A calorie, Calorie, and a joule are all measuring energy however they are different
units. A small c calorie is equivalent to that of 4.18 joules and a kilocalorie is equal to 1000
calories. The kilocalories are used in food and joules are the SI units of measurement for energy
and workforces. Finally, a small c calorie is what is found when finding the energy in a food
Specific heat capacity measures the amount of heat(in joules) to raise one gram of a
substance by 1 degree, Kelvin. The specific heat capacity of water is always one. Heat is the
total energy of the movement of particles in a substance while the temperature is the
measurement of the average energy of the molecular motion in a substance. Heat depends on
the speed of the particles as well as the number of particles, and the type of particles in an
object. Thermal energy is the kinetic energy of a substance which is due to the movement of
particles. Thermal energy can also transfer between one object to another. They are all related
because they are all measurements of the motion of particles in a substance. The thermal
energy is absorbed by the water due to the chemical potential energy of the food being
combusted and turning into thermal kinetic energy which is transferred to the water, heating it
up. As the food is burnt, the thermal energy is transferred to the can of water and the air due to
the Conservation of energy; There is always the same amount of energy and the energy ends
up as heat. However not all of the energy is used to heat up the water for some is lost to the air
and surrounding system so only the ‘useful’ energy is used to heat the water.
An exothermic reaction is a chemical reaction that occurs when energy is released
through heat or light due to the chemical reaction. An endothermic reaction is a chemical
reaction and happens when energy is absorbed from the surrounding environment. Exothermic
is when heat is released and endothermic is when heat is absorbed. Combustion is an
exothermic reaction because heat is being released through the chemical reaction of a
substance burning, and digestion is an endothermic reaction because heat/energy is being
absorbed through the chemical reaction in your body when breaking down foods.
Through this lab, we used a calorimeter, a device that uses chemical reactions to find
the Big C caloric density of foods. The purpose of the calorimeter is to find the heat put off by a
chemical reaction to measure the caloric density of a food. Not only can we use the calorimeter
to find the calories in food, but we can also use a similar process to find the relative fat and
carbohydrate percentages in a known and unknown food item. The 4-4-9 rule is that for every
one gram of protein you get 4 Calories, for every gram of carbohydrates you also get 4 Calories,
and for every gram of fat you get 9 Calories. This rule is an approximation because in science
we tend to round the numbers making it easier to calculate. There are also more than 3
molecules that we can digest and we treat those all a little differently.