The combustion of palmitic acid in a bomb calorimeter yields energy in the form of heat released upon oxidation. From a thermodynamic perspective and with respect to the calorimeter experiment, what would you expect the combustion of the same amount of palmitic acid in our body to yield?

(A) less energy

(B) more energy

(C) the same amount of energy

(D) The calorimeter experiment is irrelevant to the combustion of palmitic acid in the human body.

C) The same amount of energy

Explanation:

A bomb calorimeter is an equipment used to measure the amount of heat released or absorbed by a chemical reaction. This instrument is hermetic and has thermal insulation, which means that the system doesn't change heat with the surroundings.

So, by the difference of the temperature measured on the system (ΔT), the mass of a solution (m) and the specific heat of water (c) it's possible to calculate the heat in a reaction that occurs in aqueous solution, by the equation below:

Q = mxcxΔT

The heat, or the energy, of the reaction doesn't depend on where the reaction is happening, so the amount of energy measured on the bomb calorimeter will be the same in our body.