Name:____________________________

Date:_____________________

Sequence Guide: How Accurate are these

Nutrition labels for each of these foods?
Step 1: Initial Investigation: What is the calorie content of each of your food samples by
serving/mass? Write these in the space below. What is your personal experience/view to the
question at the top of this page? Use one website, like thecaloriecounter.com, to support your
claims.

Step 2: Data Table. Collect the following data for each of your food samples during the
combustion activity. (This is to take place after youve set-up your soda can calorimeter with
your partner.)

Step 3: Calculations (for each food sample)

1. Determine the change in temperature of the water by subtracting the initial water temperature
from the final water temperature.

2.

Calculate the heat gained by the water using the equation Q = m x C x T. The mass of water
used is 50.0 g and the specific heat of water, C, is 1.0 cal/g C. These values will give you the
heat gained in calories.

3.

Convert the heat gained from calories to food Calories (kilocalories) by dividing the answer
above, Q, by 1000.

4. Determine how much of the food burned by subtracting the final mass of the cork/pin/food
assembly from the initial mass.

5. Calculate the energy content per gram of the food sample. This is done by dividing the heat gain
of the water (in Calories),by the change in mass of the food sample.

6. Convert the energy content per gram of food sample to energy content per nutrition label serving
(on board).

Step 4: Summary of Results: Do your calculations for the calorie content in your food samples
agree with calorie content on the nutrition labels? If yes, explain why citing your calculations. If not,
reflect on the discrepancies and provide reasons why these values would be dissimilar.

Step 5: Critical Thinking: Go to the Youtube How a Bomb Calorimeter Works and pay
attention to what the narrator says. Is soda can calorimetry as accurate as bomb calorimetry?
Why or why not?