Determining calories in food by burning it

* Hey what are you doing ? ** Nothing just " BURNING SOME CALORIES "

For anyone who doesn't know, potassium chlorate react to potassium chloride and oxygen gas when heated

"Bomb Calorimeter" sounds like some type of wacky invention a evil cartoon scientist would make

Best chemistry channel on youtube, thanks Phil!

Just so people aren't confused, this is not how calories are actually counted on your nutrition label., It used to be this way but it's too expensive for companies. It's an approximation based on the number of grams of certain macronutritions. For example, fat is on avg 9 calories per gram. Just add it all up, and that's how it's done for food labels.

According to Hank Green we EXPLODE it! Thank you for spreading this neat information.

When I was in high school, I actually ditched Algebra and would sneak into Chemistry class. Of course, I would get caught, but not because I was absent. The reason I got caught was I was the only one who kept submitting passing tests for the class. The principal didn't know how the handle the situation, he had never had a student leave class to go attend another class, he said he was stuck between "I want to punish you" and "I want to encourage this knowledge-seeking behavior." But in actuality, all I was really interested in was talking to the Chemistry teacher about the different kinds of acids I could use to decap integrated circuits, to which he would love to go on for hours and hours about the different kinds of solutions and how they would react, and how the silica in the chips would react once the acid worked its way through the epoxy. It was fun times. You remind me a lot of him.

I've always been curious, when a nutrition label is developed for a food like a banana or avocado, do the testers include the peel of the fruit when testing it? Or would they just include what is traditionally considered edible?

I took a class in college called "Energy Tech for the Future". I was advised against enrolling in the course because it was much more challenging than other courses that would fulfill my lab requirement. I have never had a more enjoyable and interesting class in my life. I learned about burning calories (the literal way, as described in this video) and many other energy-related topics. Although these topics are irrelevant to my career in music, I am so thankful that I took the course

“Bomb calorimeter?” *adds “-inator” sticker* “Okay NOW it’s evi” -Doofenshmirtz

"Do you even know how many calories is in that cheese burger" "Hold on let me get the lighter real quick"

Great explanation! May i note that measuring food value in calories is the most backwards thing we invented. By that measure gasoline should be the most effective way to get your calories.

“this bright blue flame indicates a particularly sweet donut”

So that's why we call "burning" calories.

I love the look on peoples’ faces when they find out that all the food they eat is actually very flammable due to the combination of oils/fats and sugars in everyday meals

Fun fact: unless you're an oven, none of this measuring applies to your metabolic life whatsoever. The fact that we're still stuck with calorimeters like these to infer anything relating to nutrition about 150 years in, is a testimony to wilful ignorance of nutritional science circles.

I have a feeling that lab smells exactly like my kitchen when I try to cook anything

Fascinating chemistry video excellent quality very well done sir keep up the good work

The bright blue flame indicates this was a particularly sweet donut.

Are you implying that I buy expensive flour whilst I could just eat sawdust because it has roughly the same calorie density?