Failure to Burn...

[Songbird8]

Hi. My Name is Abbey. I'm doing an experiment involving burning dog food to measure the caloric energy. I build a calorimeter with my grandfather and my father, but when I lit the piece of food on fire, and got the calorimeter over the flame, it would burn out. In result, my water temperature would not change from the time I measured it from before I burned the food to after it burned. I tried to burn all three types of my dog food several time but all brands refuse to burn. I do plan to change dog foods to three new brands with a moisture percentage as well as the environment (From my grandfathers garage to my kitchen) I am in to run another experiment. Is there anything else I need to change about my experiment to make it fun easier?

Thank you!
~Abbey

[deleted-71882]

Hello Songbird8,

I suggest that you dry the dog food before you try to burn it. Place a weighed amount of the food in a warm oven and leave it for a measured time. Remove the food and weigh it again, then place in the oven again. After several heating periods, you should find that the food no longer gets lighter after being in the oven because the water has all evaporated.

You can use this dried food to burn in the calorimeter. If it's stored in a small, sealed container such as a pill bottle, it should remain dry for several days.

Be sure to use the oven only warm enough to dry the food. A warmer oven may evaporate some of the calorie-containing ingredients such as oils. A bit of trial and error is probably needed to get this step just right.

In the calorimeter be sure to place the food so that it gets air to burn.

Good luck, WW