Showing posts with label units of measurement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label units of measurement. Show all posts

Friday, August 31, 2007

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.