eli5 What is the energy losses from burning something?

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What is the terms for it? We did a lab where we burned food objects, it asked if there were any energy losses in the experiment. I searched google but couldn’t find anything I understood, can someone please help me understand? We used an open flame to burn foods such as nuts, beans, marshmallows..

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Anonymous 0 Comments

I think you’re talking about energy you weren’t able to measure in an experiment. For your example, the smoke coming off of the burning food was energy escaping that you might not have been measuring. I’m also not an expert on chemistry, but the reactions may have produced chemical energy, where some of the energy was used to synthesize chemicals and is stored in their bonds (not measurable via heat.)

If I’m following the logic properly, you’re trying to figure out why your measured energy didn’t add up to the calculations you did to predict it, and where that energy went.

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