BURNING CALORIES!

[charlmargo]

I'll be starting my science fair project on this topic taken from this site tomorrow. I am familiar with this topic and I understand the concept but I am not 100% sure I completely understand the procedure this site has given such as:

1: It says that the final mass of the food to be burned should be measured. But then it also said that it is ideal if the food is "completely" burned, like in ashes. Then does that mean we just put the final mass as zero if that happens? If not, what do we exactly do? I read it on the procedure but I'm still confused because of the wording.
2: When doing the 3 trials for 1 food item, do all of them must have the same initial mass, like as in the same amount? I have the same question for the initial temperature of the water in all of the trials. Must it all be the same?
3: In the table shown to write the notes, there was a column for "Average" Qwater for 1 g food. But under it, there was a box for EACH of the three trials. I'm confused about this because shouldn't this be just the average of Qwater for 1g food for ALL 3 trials? I just need a clarification on what this actually is.

This is my first time doing a science fair because the country I was from didn't have these sort of things and I wanted to challenge myself because I genuinely do love science. I'm looking forward to the response

[catherineM99]

Hi Charlmargo!

This is an exciting project for your first science fair! To answer your first question, it is important to weight what’s left of the food, i.e. weigh the ashes. This counts as the final mass, because it has not been burned. This value is important because it will allow you to find total mass of food burned, from mass initial - mass final. For the second question, the initial masses don’t have to all be the same! They may be similar, but you should note down the 3 exact weights. It’s important to have multiple trials because it will give you a more accurate value for the Average Qwater. The initial water temperature doesn’t have to be the same either, but if you’re using tap water each time the initial water temperature will be similar each time. Lastly, the "Average" Qwater for 1 g food column will have the same value for all three boxes, because it’s just the average of Qwater for 1g food for the 3 trials.

Good luck and hope this helps!
~Catherine M.

[charlmargo]

Hi! I am doing my science fair project on this:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... alorimeter

And I am having quite a difficult time with it to be honest. For one, it is really hard for me to light my food items on fire which are:
a) Carbohydrates
- Regular slice bread
- Cheerios
b) Proteins
- Almonds
- Raw sausage
c) Fruits and Vegetables
- Broccoli
- Apple
d) Fats and Sugars
- Croissant
- Chocolate chip cookie

The reason why I have that many test items is because I decided to test foods from these 4 food groups. The slice bread, almonds, and raw sausage are particularly hard. I use a lighter but despite that, I'm surprised the fuel just ran out. I tried using long matches but it's still the same thing. It just won't catch fire and is just simply burning my food, forcing me to take a new match all the time while the food is left there, burnt. And if it did catch fire, the fire stops so quickly that it only burned a REALLY SMALL portion and that forces me to redo it again and again since I figured that it's wrong to make it catch on fire again in the middle of the experiment right? Do any of you have suggestions please? I've been spending at least 20-30 minutes in one food item and I'm doing three trials for EACH of all these food subjects

[dcnick96]

Hello. Please keep all questions on your project on one thread so our experts can best help you based on what has already been discussed.

Thanks for using Science Buddies, and good luck!

[charlmargo]

Okay then I'm sorry about that. But, I still need help about burning my food items. Is it alright that the time when my food items are in flames, they're already more than a half burnt? Like for example a piece of bread, it really takes more than just a few minutes. And does my calorimeter have to be "completely" covered in aluminum foil in the inside? Also, is it wrong if the flames are directly in contact with the small can hanging above it?

[brianbloom]

Nice project