Determining Calorie Content Using a Bomb Calorimeter — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

Instructions

Student presentations must have a faculty sponsor.

Abstracts must include a title and a description of the research, scholarship, or creative work. The description should be 150-225 words in length and constructed in a format or style appropriate for the presenter’s discipline.

The following points should be addressed within the selected format or style for the abstract:

A clear statement of the problem or question you pursued, or the scholarly goal or creative theme achieved in your work.
A brief comment about the significance or uniqueness of the work.
A clear description of the methods used to achieve the purpose or goals for the work.
A statement of the conclusions, results, outcomes, or recommendations, or if the work is still in progress, the results you expect to report at the event.

Presenter photographs should be head and shoulder shots comparable to passport photos.

Additional Information

More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Nora Nickels
Andrew Pustina
James Ripley

Determining Calorie Content Using a Bomb Calorimeter

Name: Analise Biddle
Major: Chemistry
Hometown: Lombard, IL
Faculty Sponsor: Kevin Morris
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Course project

Name: Grant Mahant
Major: Chemistry
Hometown: Kenosha
Faculty Sponsor: Kevin Morris
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Course project

Abstract

In this study we sought to determine if the caloric contents stated on food nutritional labels matched direct measurements of caloric content using bomb calorimetry. This is of potential interest because the nutritional labels on food items can often times be misleading, and not always reflect the true values. In order to test this theory, an oxygen bomb calorimeter was used to obtain the change in temperature of the water surrounding a bomb after detonation. From the data acquired in the benzoic acid trial, the calorimeter constant was calculated. Several combustion trials were executed with basic food items, such as chocolate chips. With this data, and the calorimeter constant determined using benzoic acid, the calories per serving could be calculated. The calculated calories were approximately 30 calories higher than the nutrition label. This difference can be attributed to variability in samples and to a possible overestimate of the calorimeter constant.

Poster file