Chemistry Students Have Gone Nuts!
Lab focuses on calorie content
by Sara Walsh
September 07, 2007
Which nut has more calories: roasted peanuts or roasted walnuts? The chemistry students were recently asked this same question and completed a lab to find out. Using a homemade calorimeter setup, the lab partners lit a nut on fire and observed how much energy was released. They did this by finding the temperature change of the water in the flask above. They did three trials for each nut to get a sufficient sample size. By the end of the class period, the lab was full of floating carbon pieces and burnt nut smell!
The students will now calculate, per gram, how many calories the nuts held (since the definition of a calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise 1 g of water 1º Celsius). They can then compare their results to the nuts’ product label to check for accuracy. The students must take into consideration that product labels use the nutritional term “Calorie” (with a capital ‘C’). A Calorie is equal to 1000 calories (scientific unit) or 1 kilocalorie.
After all the calculations have been completed, students will be able to decide, from their tests, which nuts have more calories—peanuts or walnuts!
Which nut do you think has more calories?
Post your feedback on this topic here
| Date | Subject | Posted by: |
|---|---|---|
| 10/02/2007 | As far as the nut question, I have no... | Donna Uhrenholdt |
