Calorimetry
Calorimetry is measuring how much heat energy is stored inside something, like a nut, by burning it.
You heat a pot of water on the stove. You drop a burning nut into the water. The water warms up, and you measure that temperature rise. The bigger the rise, the more heat energy was stored in the nut.
Explaining calorimetry by grade level
When you burn a peanut, it gives off heat. That heat can warm up water. The more the water warms up, the more energy was in the peanut. A cashew might warm the water even more, because it holds more energy inside.
Projects that explore calorimetry
Calorimetry measures heat energy stored inside a substance by burning it and tracking the temperature change. You stick a peanut on a needle pushed into a cork and burn it beneath a can of water. The temperature rise in the water reveals how much energy the peanut contained.
Calorimetry measures the heat energy stored inside a substance by burning it. Here, you mount a peanut and a cashew on paper clips, light each one, and hold it under a test tube filled with water. As the nut burns, you measure how much the water temperature rises and how much weight the nut lost. From those two numbers, you calculate the calories released per gram — revealing which nut stored more energy.