Counting Kilocalories

We still got it right...

Calorie: "the kilocalorie or Calorie (capital 'C') remains in common use for the amount of food energy."

More specifically:

• The small calorie or gram calorie approximates the energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 °C. This is about 4.184 joules.

• The large calorie or kilogram calorie approximates the energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1 °C. This is about 4.184 kJ, and exactly 1000 small calories.

• The mega calorie or ton calorie[citation needed] approximates the energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 ton of water by 1 °C. This is about 4.184 MJ, and exactly 1000 large calories.

The difference lies in how much water you are talking about.