Calorimetry

• Calorimetry


  Experiment done to find out how much energy is in our food
• Laws of energy


  • Energy cannot be created or destroyed
  • Energy can only be transferred from one thing to another
• If you dropped a ball

  Gravitational potential energy built up in the ball as you lift it will be transferred to kinetic energy as you let go
• There is already stored energy in the food before we eat it
• Calorimetry experiment


  1. Set up a retort stand with a clamp

  2. Use a thermometer

  3. Use a calorimeter filled with water (copper cup)

  4. Use tongs

  5. Use a Bunsen burner
• Carrying out the calorimetry experiment

  1. Food is set alight by the Bunsen burner

  2. Food held under the cup with the tongs

  3. Energy in the food is transferred to thermal energy

  4. Thermal energy is then transferred to the water
• Calculating the energy in food

  Multiply the mass of the water by the temperature change of the water by 4.2
• Specific heat capacity


  How much energy we need to give water to increase its temperature by 1 degree