what is a calorie?

Question

i am doing homework on cellular respiration

Answer 1

A calorie is a unit of measurement for energy.

Calorie is French and derives from the Latin calor (heat). In most fields, it has been replaced by the joule, the SI unit of energy. However, it remains in common use for the amount of food energy. Many different definitions for the calorie emerged during the 19th and 20th centuries. They fall into two classes:

* 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.

In scientific contexts, the name "calorie" refers strictly to the gram calorie, and this unit has the symbol cal. SI prefixes are used with this name and symbol, so that the kilogram calorie is known as the "kilocalorie" and has the symbol kcal.

In America, a colloquial usage for nutrition and food labelling uses the term "calorie" to refer to the kilogram calorie. This applies only to English text; if an energy measurement is given using a unit symbol then the scientific practice prevails there.[clarify] A convention of capitalising "Calorie" to refer to the kilogram calorie, with uncapitalised "calorie" referring to the gram calorie, is sometimes proposed, but neither recognized in any official standards, nor commonly followed.

The conversion factor between calories and joules is numerically equivalent to the specific heat capacity of liquid water (in SI units).

Answer 2

A calorie is a unit of measurement of the energy produced by food when it is used, in the body. Calories are like fuel for our bodies. We need them for our bodies to run. But if we pump more fuel into our bodies than we need for the amount of activity we do, the excess fuel just sits there. Your body will store this excess, unused fuel. It may store it as muscle, if you perform enough physical exercises, such as weightlifting, or it may store it as fat.

Answer 3

the amount of energy needed to raise 1 mL of water 1 degree Celsius

Answer 4

It's a measurement of latent energy. I think the energy output of a calorie is usually represented in kelvins. You should probably look that part up.

Short answer -- it is a unit of measurement of energy.

Answer 5

calorie = the amount of energy needed to raise one gram of water by one degree Celsius

Answer 6

It is unit of heat which to heat 1 gram of water from 15.5 degrees centigrade to 16.5 degrees of centigrade ( 1 degree)

Answer 7

it's a unit of energy. I believe it has to do with the energy it produces while burning

Answer 8

a measure of energy