It seems that at least once a year California has another energy crisis, and almost as often, someone wonders what will happen when California runs out of energy sources. Christopher Crews, knowing that all living things contain energy, set out to prove that different varieties of nuts have energy stores that can be released by burning.
Hypothesis
I believe that burning different varieties of nuts will produce energy, and that peanuts will produce the most energy.
Measured variables
Amount of heat produced
Controls
- Number of nuts tested
- Amount of water
Experimental groups
- Almonds
- Cashews
- Peanuts
Materials
- Ten each whole, raw, unshelled nuts:
- Cashews
- Almonds
- Peanuts
- Lighter
- Needle
- Cork
- Thermometer
- 32-ounce coffee can
- Two 10-ounce soup cans
- Drill and bits
- Skewer
- Water
- Kitchen scale
Procedures
- Fill large coffee can with water.
- Measure nut.
- Weigh water on kitchen scale.
- Measure and record starting water temperature.
- Drill hole through nut.
- Insert skewer through hole in nut.
- Heat nut with lighter and let the nut burn fully.
- Measure and record ending water temperature.
- Calculate BTU (starting temperature minus ending temperature divided by the weight of the water). BTU stands for British Thermal Unit, the energy necessary to raise the temperature of one pound of water by 1@dgsF. One BTU equals approximately 1,055 joules (or 1,055 watt-seconds).
- Repeat Steps 1 through 9 for each nut.
Results
The average BTU for each type of nut is as follows:
Cashews 15.75 BTU
Almonds 13.76 BTU
Peanuts 10.77 BTU
Conclusions
The hypothesis was that burning different varieties of nuts would produce energy, with peanuts producing the most energy. That’s partially correct because all the nuts produced energy. However, the hypothesis was incorrect because the cashews produced the most energy, and peanuts produced the least.
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