An exothermic reaction gives off energy to the surroundings; like a fire giving off heat. An endothermic reaction takes in energy from the surroundings; like a snowman melting.

How many Calories are in a sample of food? Here, we'll see how you can determine this by burning a potato chip and heating a sample of water. The heat released by the burning potato chip is absorbed by the water, and then we can calculate how much heat was absorbed by the water, using the equation that contains mass, specific heat, and change in (delta) temperature.

How many calories are in a food sample? We can find out by burning a potato chip, causing it to release energy. This will be absorbed by water in a calorimeter, so we will then calculate how much energy the water absorbed, using an equation for heat energy, specific heat, mass, and change in temperature (delta temperature). We will also calculate the Calories per gram and Calories per serving, and then calculate percent error to find out how far off out experimental numbers were from the real values.