do objects contain calories too?
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A calorie is a unit of energy required to raise a cubic centimeter of water 1 degree Celsius. The simple answer is yes, kind of. A general rule for most things; if it can burn, it can be considered to have calories.
yes, but not if you’re talking about the specific “food calorie”. calories are unit of measuring “energy” ie heating up 1gram of water by 1 degree C. one food Calorie (notice the capital C) is 1000 calories or 1kcal. things like wood, gasoline, all have energy and can be used for things like heating up water too. we measure nonfood sources energy in BTU’s usually.
Well, yes and no.
The calorie is a unit of measurement for energy, like the meter is a unit of length. A calorie is defined by the energy needed to heat up a kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. You could totally convert it to other units of energy, like the kilowatt-hour (the unit in which your electric bill is measured) : one kilowatt-hour is equal to around 860 calories.
Saying that there are 1000 calories in a meal mean that, if you eat that meal, your body could theoretically extract 1000 calories of energy from it, and use that energy to heat itself, move your muscles, or thinking about things.
So are there calories in, say, a table ? Well, in a sense, no, because you cannot eat a table (no, don’t try), so there is no energy in it that you can use.
But there definitely is some energy inside a table. Your body may not be able to use it, but machines could. For example, put that table in a wood-burner and it will extract energy from it (by burning it), and heat up your house.
Sort of yes, and sort of no.
A piece of wood has a certain amount of energy you can get out of it (i.e. by burning it) and you could measure that amount in calories. But since you are unable to digest wood (assuming you’re not a termite), eating that piece of wood would give you zero calories of nutritional energy.
And of course, according to Einstein, all matter is energy.
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