Question

Bomb calorimeters are often used to determine the amount of energy stored in foods. You can find the molar enthalpy of combustion for sucrose (table sugar) by looking it up on a table. Why can’t you do the same with butter? Use your knowledge of these types of matter (not the information provided in this article) to answer the question.

Answer 1

Butter is made of milk, which is made of several things. To do calculations with bomb calorimetry, we often need the number of moles of the substance that we’re using. Since we can’t just say “moles of milk”, it’s not on a table.