Energy content in foods

A close-up photograph of a burning marshmallow on a metal skewer, pictured against a dark background

Source: © Getty Images

Try this class experiment to investigate how much energy different foods contain. Includes kit list and safety instructions.

In this practical, students burn a sample of a foodstuff of known mass, heating a known volume of water. From the measured temperature change, students calculate the energy transferred to the water, and hence estimate the energy present per unit mass of food.

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