Energy Efficiency while Popping Popcorn

Overview

Objectives/Goals My goal was to determine which method of popping popcorn was the most energy-efficient: Jolly Time microwave, Orville Redenbacher#s microwave, Jolly Time stove, or Orville Redenbacher#s stove. I hypothesized that Orville Redenbacher#s stove would be the most energy-efficient. Methods/Materials I found the energy use of our microwave and stove using Btu, the amount of energy needed to raise one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit by massing a pound of water, then heating it up for a given time. Using both cooking methods, (microwave and stove), I could find the energy use for each. Then, I popped both brands of popcorn using both cooking methods, seeing how long the energy would have to sustain to get the job done. Last, working with the numbers I collected, I found how much energy it took to pop each brand using each cooking method. Results My results showed that using a microwave to pop popcorn is more energy-efficient than a stove. Orville Redenbacher#s popcorn uses less energy than Jolly Time. The most energy-efficient popcorn was Orville Redenbacher#s popcorn, at 83.9 Btu per bag. Next was Jolly Time microwave at 102.22 Btu per bag, then Orville Redenbacher#s stove with 183.37 Btu. Trailing close behind was Jolly Time#s stove at 188.7 Btu. My project shows that the most energy-efficient popcorn uses less than 1/2 of the energy the least energy-efficient popcorn uses. Conclusions/Discussion My findings proved that my hypothesis was incorrect. I did, however, attain my objective and discovered which popcorn was the most energy-efficient out of my four choices. The microwave used more energy than the stove per second, but microwaving popcorn was much faster. Orville Redenbacher#s popcorn simply popped faster than Jolly Time. The information I gathered from this project expanded at least my knowledge about energy. I learned about Btu and how to measure it. I think that people could use my project#s procedure as a basis of testing many different types of food with a variety of cooking methods. By determining the most energy-efficient way to cook a diversity of foods, people will have even more options to save energy.

Competition history

• CSEF 2002 Materials Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1140

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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