Investigating Calories in an Apple

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Alexander Zouev

Physics IB HL 7/05/06

GROUP 4 PROJECT

Umbrella topic: Heat. Subtopic: Heat and an Apple

Physics Lab: Investigating Calories in an Apple

Aim:

To measure the amount of Calories in a fresh average-sized apple, a dry apple ringlet, and an oven-dried apple ringlet using a Calorimeter.

Theory:

All foods including apples have energy within them. Our human bodies can convert this stored energy that's found in the foods (calories) and convert it into chemical energy which we use and need to do work. A calorie can be defined as "the amount of energy (heat) required to raise the temperature of 1 gram (g) of water 1 degree Celsius (Cº)". The word calorie gets its origins from Latin as the word "calor" actually means "heat" (our umbrella topic!) in Latin. All foods have a specific calorific value - a hamburger has many Calories, a carrot has much less. When calories are written with a capital C, as they mostly are on packaging, it means they are in fact kilocalories (there are 1000 calories in a kilocalorie).

A simple way to measure the energy or the