Biology - Energy Content in Foods Experiment

Biology - Energy Content in Foods Experiment

  • Submitted By: kee95ify
  • Date Submitted: 10/13/2009 7:00 AM
  • Category: Science
  • Words: 683
  • Page: 3
  • Views: 2

Manipulation of Variables:
Procedure:
Clamp the boiling tube to the utility clamp.
Place the thermometer in the boiling tube.
Measure and record the initial temperature of the water.
Light the spirit lamp.
Carefully stick the mounted needle into the test food.
Hold the food in the flame until it starts to burn.
Immediately move the food, so that it is burning under the boiling tube.
Keep the food under the flame until it will no longer relight.
Immediately, measure and record the temperature in the water.
Carefully put the mounted needle with the burnt food down the sink.
10.Change the water in the boiling tube and wash the tube.
11.Repeat steps 1 to 12 for the rest of the test fods.
Experimental set – up:
Data table:
Inference from Data Table:
Energy content of test food = Volume of water x Average Rise in temperature x 4.2
Graph based on the results:
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From the bar graph above I can infer that, the test food which had the highest energy content was Pista. However there seems to be some error in the readings, since the highest energy content food should be cheetos which surprisingly is seen to be the lowest in the bar graph above. In short the actual trend line has been depicted with dotted lines in the bar graph above.
Hence, I can conclude from the graph that each food substance has its own energy content which depends on its calorimeter. This calorimeter in turn depends on the amount of substances such as protein, carbohydrate, and fats present in the food tested.
The graph below is a much clearer column graph to give a neat explanation:
Conclusion:
In this experiment my aim was to plan an experiment to distinguish the different proportions of proteins, fats and carbohydrates to see how much energy that is calories they release. The four main food items which were investigated were: popcorn, cheetos, almond and pista....

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