Peanut Candies and Calories Science Fair Projects

Peanuts

What is a peanut? A peanut is not a nut, but rather a lugume, which is a relative of the bean and pea.

EDU-36820 C2D Discovery Planet Digital Microscope	Young Scientists Club Set 2	Discovery Planet EDU-41021 Maxscope Videoscope	Student, HomeSchool & Adult Microscopes
Ages 8 and up	Ages 5 - 8	Ages 10 and up	Age 10 thru College

Objectives/Goals

The objective is to determine the difference in calorie content for peanuts with different coatings.

Methods/Materials

45 plain peanuts were used as a control and compared to 45 sugar coated and 45 salted peanuts. A calorimeter was used for measuring the temperature change of the water and the peanuts mass change w recorded after burning was completed. Peanut energy in kcal was calculated by multiplying the change i water temperature by .2 L. Lastly, kcal per gram of nut burned was calculated by dividing the peanut energy by the mass change of the nut.

Results

The plain peanuts (control) had an average of 1.78 kcal/gram while the sugar coated peanuts had an average of 4.13 kcal/gram. The salted peanuts had an average of 2 kcal/gram.

Conclusions/Discussion

Using 10% confidence intervals, a significant difference can be found between the calories of sugar coated peanuts and that of plain or salted peanuts. However, there is no significant difference in the number of calories between plain or salted peanuts. This data suggests that those persons concerned about calories should avoid sugar coated peanuts in favor of salted or plain peanuts. 3rd party contributor