Based on the alternate hypothesis that suggested pumpkin seeds would release the most energy, the results shown support the statement. Although the pumpkin seeds are shown to have a higher energy content than the croutons, there was no drastic difference between the mean or total energy content of both, therefore the null hypothesis can not be entirely refuted. It is evident how the calorific content of the foods are dependent on their constituent molecules, yet the alternate hypothesis was based on the premise that lipids contained more calories per gram than carbohydrates, thus lipids would release more energy. Yet there is not enough evidence to suggest that the alternate hypothesis is correct since the lipid and carbohydrate content of …show more content…
For instance, in this experiment, the balance used to measure the weight of the foods before and after being combusted, could only measure up to two decimal places which could have created an error in recording the actual total mass. Also, the method of this experiment involved plenty of human input which is inevitably more prone to errors.
The calorimeter used to conduct this experiment was homemade and constructed with recycled items. This certainly led to an error considering that recycled materials could easily affect the accuracy of the data leading to imperfections. Due to this, a great amount of heat was lost to the environment since the apparatus was not in enclosed in order to prevent heat loss. A design including a more precise and calculated apparatus would have potentially improved the accuracy of the experiment. Overall, an improvement of the design of the calorimeter and a more standardized experiment would have led to more realistic and percise results.
The extension of this experiment could further involve the analyzation on the energy storage of lipids and carbohydrates. It would lead to the testing of lipid and carbohydrate content in croutons and pumpkin seeds as well as other substances with a high amount of measurable